Motown Metal
General Info
Year: 1994
Duration: c. 6:50
Difficulty: VI (see Ratings for explanation)
Publisher: Peer Music Ltd.
Cost: Score and Parts - Unknown | Score Only - $25.00
Instrumentation
Full Score
Horns in F I-II-III-IV
Trumpet I-II-III-IV
C Trombone I-II
Bass Trombone
Tuba
Percussion I-II, including:
- Anvil
- Brake Drum
- Cymbal (medium suspended)
- Glockenspiel
- Gong (or Tam-tam) (large)
- Hi-Hat
- Nipple Gong (medium)
- Splash Cymbals
- Triangle (2: small and large)
- Vibraphone
Errata
None discovered thus far.
Program Notes
Motown Metal for brass ensemble and percussion is inspired by the sounds and rhythms of industrial Detroit: city of automobile clamor and the sixties Motown sound. The composition highlights instruments made only of metal. Motown Metal is an assembly line of ascending and descending glissandi and rapid chromatic scales, predominately heard in the trombones. The tuba, glockenspiel, and anvil create a funky polyphony, while the trumpets and horns play big band staccato chords. I draw on my experience playing percussion in sixties soul music bands and drum and bugle corps to create brassy industrial-strength polyrhythms.
- Program Note by Michael Daugherty
Motown Metal was commissioned by the Detroit Chamber Winds and Summit Brass and premiered by the DCW, conducted by H Robert Reynolds, in February 1994. It was inspired by the rhythms of industrial Detroit: a city of automobile clamor, the '60s Motown sound, and the '90s techno beat.
In line with the title, the work features metal instrumental only, including the usual brass but with percussion instruments such as the vibraphone, glockenspiel, cymbals, and brake drum. The composition rigorously structured around a series of glissando crescendos for trombones, a funky tuba counterpoint, big band staccato chords for trumpets, and metallic percussion riffs.
- Program Note from Program Notes for Band
Media
State Ratings
None discovered thus far.
Performances
To submit a performance please join The Wind Repertory Project
- Southern Methodist University (Dallas, Tx.) Meadows Wind Ensemble (Jack Delaney, conductor) - 10 September 2023
- Messiah University (Mechanicsburg, Penn.) Wind Ensemble (James Colonna, conductor) - 22 April 2021
- Colorado Wind Ensemble (Denver) (David Kish, conductor) – 17 November 2019
- Southern Methodist University (Dallas, Tex.) Meadows Wind Ensemble (Jack Delaney, conductor) - 12 February 2015 (2015 TMEA Conference, San Antonio)
- University of New Mexico (Albuquerque) Wind Ensemble (Eric Rombach-Kendall, conductor) – 26 February 1999 (CBDNA 1999 National Conference, Austin, Tx.)
Works for Winds by This Composer
Adaptable Music
- Made for You and Me: Inspired by Woody Guthrie (Adaptable Band) (2020)
All Wind Works
- The Adventures of Jesse Owens (2023)
- American Gothic (tr. Daugherty and Galyen) (2013/2019)
- Asclepius (2007)
- Alligator Alley (2003)
- Bells for Stokowski (2002)
- Bizarro (1993)
- Brooklyn Bridge (2005)
- Dead Elvis (1999)
- Desi (1991)
- Dreamachine (2014/2022)
- Firecracker (1989)
- Labyrinth of Love (2012)
- Ladder to the Moon (2005)
- Lift Up Thine Ears (2021/2022)
- Lost Vegas (2011)
- Made for You and Me: Inspired by Woody Guthrie (Adaptable Band) (2020)
- Motown Metal (1994)
- Niagara Falls (1997)
- Of War and Peace (2017)
- On the Air (2012)
- Passacaglia in Primary Colors (2023)
- Raise the Roof (2007)
- Red Cape Tango (tr. Spede) (1993/1999)
- Reflections on the Mississippi for Tuba and Band (2013)
- Rio Grande (2015)
- Rosa Parks Boulevard (2001)
- Songs from a Silent Land (2019)
- Timbuktuba (1995)
- UFO (2000)
- Vulcan (2014)
- Winter Dreams (2015)
Resources
- McGarvey, Timothy D. (1987) “Desi, Bizzaro, and Motown Metal: The Wind and Percussion Music of Michael Daugherty.” D.M.A. dissertation, University of Cincinnati. 184 p.
- Smith, Norman E. (2002). Program Notes for Band. Chicago: GIA Publications, pp. 158