Rarus Felicity by Jeff Ausdemore

Rarus Felicity is an energetic, wild musical journey for percussion quintet and soloist. Drawing inspiration from its unique instrumentation, “Rarus” explores several compositional ideas to highlight the versatility of the soloist, bringing a high level of rudimental technique and touch to converse with and against the full ensemble. These conversations are fully explored through chamber playing and communication, as well as paying musical homage to the highest level of contemporary quad drumming in our percussive community.

Rarus Felicity is an energetic and extremely colorful quintet with soloist that highlights conversation and interplay between unique percussion instrument combinations and contemporary tenor drums. The rhythmic base of the work lulls the listener into a false sense of balance and expectation by combining metric and phrase asymmetry, angular motives, and conversational interplay between each voice or choir of voices. Each of the rhythmic motives builds organically between the soloist and the supporting ensemble as the piece unfolds. Deep within the orchestration, we hear subtle interjections from the supporting voices of the quintet to highlight the soloist and create conversational dialogue within each of the major sections of the piece’s structure. Although Rarus is largely through-composed, there are several thematic parallels that bind the overall aesthetic through spirit and energy. The soloist serves two major roles within the piece: moving with and contrary to the supporting quintet, highlighting the various melodic and rhythmic ideas that originate from the unique ensemble instrumentation. The musical flow and direction of the piece alternates between escalating harmonic movement, and rhythmic complexity that culminates with composite musical ideas that drive all the way to the end of this exciting and fast paced work.

In the end, Rarus seeks to pay homage to the directors and students of the Forney High School Percussion Ensemble’s culture of excellence by highlighting the unique technical and musical skills required of each performer to bring it to life.

–J.A.