Viitala Sakari: Discofrisco, parts

Discofrisco (2012)

Discofrisco was composed by a need for new percussion ensemble pieces. The order was made by Sakari´s percussion teacher in his hometown: Kokkola, Finland. Sakari was asked to compose from four to five new pieces per year for the Conservatory´s ensemble to perform. Sakari premiered all the pieces with the ensemble and the teacher Mika Viik was conducting.

Discofrisco is composed for percussion sextet. The soloistic part is written for Timpani. The piece requires five timpani. From timpanis it also requires skills of making tuning plans and also a good ear in sense of intonation. There is an example in the part how I suggest to tune the five drums, but every player might have their own opinions of what is the best solution for them so feel free to make your own tuning plans!

Discofrisco also has challenging mallet parts. Especially with the vibraphone part you need to take care in which spot you play on the bar when you play chords and which mallets to use in which order. Drumset players need skills of keeping the disco beat going on steady. For Discofrisco I first composed the timpani bass line from the very beginning.That is the base for the whole piece. Then I put the disco beat to the drum set part to make the disco feeling and to support the timpani bass line. Melodies came next and I chose to use Glockenspiel and Vibraphone to bring them out. Some of the chords for vibraphone are influenced by jazz music. This piece requires players who have come to curtain level with their studies so this piece is maybe not a good pic for beginners.

These percussion ensemble works are composed from a pedagogical perspective and for Ostrobothnia Conservatory percussion ensemble. The parts follow the curtain level of the ensemble and the parts are also individually made for every player keeping in mind what they are capable to play. Different music genres and styles weren't a pedagogical choice but came with my own intuition with each piece during the composing time.