Totem

Hear an excerpt of this piece.

Composer: David Heuser
Instrumentation: Percussion Sextet (two xylophones, two marimbas, two log drums, five timple blocks, and two wood blocks)
Year Composed: 1989
Duration: 4 minutes
Pages (score): 18

Cost: Purchase: $30.00
($60.00 for set of three pieces: Totem, Secrets, and The Way of the Animal Powers

Representative Performances:

• UTSA Percussion Ensemble, Sherry Smith, conductor (April, 1998)
• USF Percussion Ensemble, Robert McCormick, conductor (November, 1996)
• Glassboro State College Percussion Ensemble, Dean Witten, conductor (November, 1989)

Excerpts from the February 1997 issue of Percussive Notes (the newsletter of the Percussive Arts Society). Review by Lisa Rogers.

On Totem:
"The keyboard players must have adequate four-mallet skills in order to employ double vertical strokes. Difficulties within this ensemble include: dovetailing of rhythms between voices, lining up triplets and sextuplets against 16th notes, and rhythmical precision of unison sections."

On the whole set (also includes Secrets and The Way of the Animal Powers):
"All three of Heuser's works would be appropriate for college-level or professional players. Heuser is tireless in his experimentation with sounds and timbres; therefore Totem, Secrets, and The Way of the Animal Powers are worthwhile for performers and audiences alike."

Totem was written in April and June of 1989. It is for six percussionists, all playing wooden instruments. I wanted to create a unified percussion ensemble where the kinds of instruments played by the group would be made of the same material. Totem is part of a trio of percussion sextets which operate under this principle.

Musically the piece deals with issues of mythology and ritual, which have been influencing my music from time to time for a while. I find these influences difficult to portray in strictly instrumental works, particularly since I wish also to remain true to other artistic instincts which I think are important (and perhaps necessary) for my music. That being said, writing for percussion gives one probably the easiest ensemble with which to evoke feelings of ritual, mythology and all their correlating concepts.

Note: Totem can be performed separately or as part of the above mentioned trio of percussion sextets. If all three are played, the order of the pieces is Totem, Secrets, and The Way of the Animal Powers.