GHOST DANCeS

Ghost Dances tells the tales of how ghosts and spirits spend their time when none of the living are watching. It is an eerie, energetic, dark, and in its own strange way, joyous piece. The piece includes three dances, each with their own unique style and flair, but all from the same world. The first dance is an introduction, bringing the ghosts together and setting the stage for the dancing to come. The second dance is a waltz, but with a ghostly twist, flowing both evenly and unevenly at the same time. Driving percussion leads into the third dance, which is a fast paced and dramatic rush as the energy builds. Finally, all the ghosts join in at once for the big finale.

This piece started with the goal of creating a fun and more advanced 7/8 piece of music that used 7/8 well but didn’t rely on it as a gimmick. This next grew into a spooky piece in the key of G (for Ghost) Harmonic Minor, which creates much of the flair of the piece. From here, the cover art actually came first, and served as inspiration for the various themes. The piece also draws inspiration from the style of Lin-Manuel Miranda, particularly his skill at creating a piece of unique melodies that cover multiple styles, and seamlessly fitting them together all superimposed at once. As such, each of the three dances has their own unique flair, but at the end are all layered on top of each other leading to the grand finale.

This piece uses a lot of common techniques in slightly less common ways, creating a unique style without the need for substantial new skillsets from the performers. As a percussionist, I have always felt that concert band percussion parts are far easier than wind parts from the same piece. In Ghost Dances, the percussion parts are more difficult than most music of this grade level, being about on par with the difficulty of the wind parts.