Home Is by Daniel Eisenhardt

Home is where the heart is.
This is a piece about…well, home. What it means to us, what it can and can’t be, and how it feels to come back to it. The loss of one’s home, no matter how it came about, can be a devastating blow, and finding a new home can make many things in our life right. It is the most intimate space we have, our castle, a warm bed, familiar faces. And sometimes it’s not even a place at all, but a feeling, a person maybe, or an open door.

Starting out with only two mallets, an optimistic 7/8 theme drives the piece forward. In the minimalistic, pattern-based middle section, the player seamlessly switches to four mallets. After fragmented variations on the previous material, the piece ends on a soaring return of the original theme, with a humble conclusion.

Home is is a rewarding repertoire piece for students and professionals alike, being both audience friendly and fun to play. It presents various technical challenges, but it also gives the player a lot of room to show musicality.