Ringing Changes by Charles Wuorinen

Ringing Changes by Charles Wuorinen for percussion ensemble. The work is in a single long movement, and is based on a continuous polyphonic skeleton which lies beneath the sonic surface of the work, and which generates the moment-to-moment continuity. Here the music is divided between pitched and non-pitched voices, and a basic four-voice polyphony is disposed with two voices given to the pitched instruments — mainly piano four-hands and vibraphones — and two (“noise” or relative pitch) given with various alternations and duplications to sets of 12 metal instruments, 12 drums, 6 cymbals, and 4 tam-tams. An occasional inflectional role is performed by a string drum, and at the end chimes and timpani appear.