Vagabond is a piece written for percussion quartet. Vagabond tells the story of a homeless person who roams the streets at night in search of food and shelter. Like Soggy Chestnuts, this piece can be broken into sections that each convey a different part of the story.

 

• Section A and B resemble the Vagabond roaming the streets to find food.

• Section C resembles the fear in the realisation that there is no food or shelter.

• Section D and E resemble a gradual bittersweet acceptance in their fate, with the piece ending being open to interpretation.

 

The piece begins in Section A with a constant syncopated line on the vibraphone, with accents on the F’s to create a clear rhythm. The vibraphone repeats this constant two bar phrase with minimal changes for 25 bars. Layers are gradually added to the vibraphone, such as a quiet repeated phrase in marimba 2 and eventually some melody shared by marimba and glockenspiel. The melody part becomes increasingly pronounced by the glockenspiel until section B begins.

 

Section B bears similarity to the first section, with the second marimba now playing a constant two-bar phrase. Unlike section A, this section uses the vibraphone and marimba to create a call and response melody with hints of the vibraphone phrase used from the previous section. A variety of voicings, articulations and syncopated rhythms are all used to constantly keep the listener’s interest. In bar 44, the piece switches to harmonic minor using the E natural. All the instruments then play a big chord, with the second marimba gradually rolling louder and louder into section C.

 

In section C, the rising tension from previous sections all build into a dramatic, fast paced section. The tempo changes to 110 BPM and the time signature changes to 6/8. One concern when writing this piece was how the musicians would change between these tempos/time signatures so quickly. This issue was resolved by having a fermata on a semibreve to ensure that the conductor had ample time to begin conducting in the new tempo and time signature. Call and response is frequently used in this section to create an intense, impactful sound whenever all the instruments played the ‘call’ in unison.

 

The next section uses a variety of techniques to make it contrast the previous section and appear much more ‘gentle’ tone.  Softer dynamics are used to contrast the loudness. The second marimba plays a quiet tremolo between notes to create chords with a warm, pad-like feeling. The tonality of this section constantly alternates between major and minor while building up in dynamics to create a constant, rising tension and release. Hints of melody from section A are used in the glockenspiel between bars 65-70 to remind the listener of familiar melodies from previous sections in the piece.  This section builds up tension until it finally releases into the major key.

 

Section E develops on the ‘gentle’ idea of the previous section, but develops it into a euphoric, serene quality to conclude the piece. The glockenspiel plays a new melody whilst the other instruments work in correlation with one another to create a rhythmic chord sequence. The piece ends with a simplistic, bittersweet melody played with bowed marimba and vibraphone chord rolls to create a ‘sweet’ sound. The piece ends after a rising chord progression on a minor chord, leaving whether the piece ends on a happy or sad note up to the listener's interpretation.

​

​

When the first draft of the piece was written, I received multiple points of constructive feedback to improve the piece and its score. Some changes I made based on these changes include:

• Specifying soft or hard mallets for marimba to get the desired texture

• Fixing unnecessary enharmonic notes

• Altering B and C, so that the performers have time to change between time signatures/tempos

• Changing the tremolos in Marimba 2 so that notes don't overlap

• Use rehearsal marks to clearly indicate separate sections. 

​

​

​

​

​