We’re very excited to announce that our new book Purcell Percussion Project is now available from Southern Percussion
From our earliest ideas while working together at the Royal College of Music to recently completing this book and recording the promotional videos it’s always a huge pleasure to collaborate with one of Britain’s most exciting young timpanists Louise Goodwin.
This book is a collection of 11 dances and orchestral pieces from Purcell’s opera ‘The Fairy Queen’. We haven’t had to adapt much to make this music fit on to four mallet percussion instruments. For most our arrangements instruments can be shared and the line up is flexible. We indicate the difficulty of each part and there are some very easy parts that virtual beginners can master. In addition to the mallet percussion quartet there is an optional 5th player; playing improvised un-pitched percussion. Usually we have provided two guide versions of this again allowing very inexperienced players to be part of an ensemble.
For high ability players this book is useful as it gives them a chance to play some wonderful music in a style that we do not normally get to play as percussionists. Rather than focusing on highly technical or taxing parts as is often the case in percussion ensembles, this relatively simple music allows us far more headspace to focus on phrasing and musical aspects and develop a true insight into playing in this historic and important style.
We very much hope that you enjoy playing Purcell’s wonderful music!
PPP videos