Theme and Variations for Drumset

In my last post I shared some of Theme and Variations with you (the theme and first variation) and yesterday I finished the entire work (theme and four variations). The piece is dedicated to Blake Marriott, a friend I met as an undergrad at MWSU. He was the first to show me, through his own compositions, that drumset can be more than just a "groove" instrument and deserves to be viewed and taught as a multiple percussion instrument, complete with its own diverse repertoire.  Theme and Variations was written with those goals in mind and really challenges the performer's (and hopefully the audience's) perceptions about what can be expressed musically on the drumset.