Altered Gates

Altered Gates by Jim Casella is a quintet for unpitched percussion instruments. It features a large array of concert and marching drums and auxiliary percussion instruments. The piece is set up in such a way that the performers face inward towards each other, adding a compelling element of spectacle and choreography to the piece. With nuanced cooperation, ten hands interweave to create multiple rhythmic layers, split melodies, and an energetic, groove-based current of perpetual motion.

Altered Gates was written in 2018 for the Berkner High School Percussion Ensemble from Richardson, Texas, under the direction of Mike Garcia for their PASIC showcase concert as a winner of the Percussive Arts Society International Percussion Ensemble Competition.

This piece comes as a professionally printed and bound score and includes individual parts in PDF format for printing or for tablet viewing.

Instrumentation:

• Drums (1 set of marching tenors (quints), 4 double-headed toms (graduated in size), 1 kick drum (mounted flat), bongos, congas, snare drum (w/ splash cym. on top head))
• Cymbals (hi-hat, 2 splash cymbals)
• Accessories (2 cowbells (low, med-high), 4 jam blocks (low, medium, high, piccolo), opera gong (or small china cymbal), resonant metal (I.e. ice bell)