Click here to download liner notes.

Partita for Solo Percussion is featured on the CD, “The Solo Percussionist”.

I. Boureé

II. Sarabande

III. Gigue

The three movement suite was composed for the senior-year recital of Bill Platt (now principal percussionist in the Cincinnati Symphony) at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, NY. In the 1960s there was very little repertoire for solo percussion in existence, a situation which sparked a desire to create a virtuoso solo piece for percussion in a musical vein inspired by the Sonatas and Partitas for solo violin by J.S. Bach. The Boureé is constructed around a two-note theme (low – high) and is scored for four timbales (or one pair of bongos plus one pair of tom toms), bass drum with pedal, 2 suspended cymbals, triangle, and woodblock. The Sarabande is for a different grouping of percussion instruments – four timpani and a snare drum. The Gigue returns to the instruments used in the Boureé, minus the bass drum.