The Percustary Insectarium (2018) II. Cicadian Chorus

Track 7 off the new FSU Percussion Ensemble recording, "The Percustary Insectarium" (2019), featuring cellist Amy Sue Barston, composed by Adam Silverman. Adam has consistently been a joy to work with for the past ten years, and we look forward to his continued friendship and collaboration!
“TPI is a work for cello soloist with percussion orchestra. The cello part, composed for and performed by my wife Amy, is largely inspired by sounds overheard from her practice studio, including random finger exercises, percussive etudes by Aldo Pais (hence the name of the third movement), and snippets of other cello music, some of which I had also composed. The accompanying percussion music was not created according to any specific program, though I found the idea of insect sounds, both real and imagined, to be a guiding principle. One specific source of inspiration was the crescendo of cicadas - a sound with which I have been fascinated for a lifetime - which is here translated into a choir of wood planks in a smooth low-to-high gradation, the swells of which are woven through this work. The strange title of this piece is an homage to a friend - composer Carl Schimmel - whose antique-sounding titles have always entranced me.”-AS