Songs for Black Swans

by Brett William Dietz

Medium-Advanced Percussion Quartet

4 Players

Instrumentation: 

• Crotales (2 octaves) (may sub glockenspiel that is able to be bowed)
• Glockenspiel
• Vibraphone
• Xylophone
• Tuned steel pipes (F3-C5)
• Marimba (5-octave)
• Drums — 2 congas
• Cymbals — hi-hat, Zil-Bel (or similar)
• Accessories — ankle shaker, 4 wrist/bracelet shakers, small woodblock, afuche/cabasa, bass bow

Songs for Black Swans by Brett Dietz is a medium-advanced quartet presented in multiple short movements, each shaped by the idea of unpredictable “black swan” events—rare moments that arrive without warning and leave a lasting mark. Inspired in part by the now-famous “Rumsfeld Matrix,” the piece draws on the tension between certainty and uncertainty, known and unknown, stability and disruption.

Each movement explores a different musical response to the “black swan” concept. Woods and metallics (including tuned metal pipes and bowed vibraphone) are utilized in alternating fashion to orchestrate the different moods throughout while bracelet/ankle shakers and congas lend a dark underpinning to the second movement. Across the set, performers navigate a mix of tight ensemble coordination and mysterioso timbres in an intimate chamber setting. 

This piece ships as a fully bound score. Individual parts come exclusively in PDF format.