Tears of Apollo

Tears of Apollo is a musical portrayal of three stages of man’s relationship to God: I. Age of Fire, II. Age of Reason, and III. Age of Heaven. Four challenging mallet parts make this a must for your college ensemble.

Program Notes

Tears of Apollo is a musical portrayal of three stages of man's relationship to God. In the first movement man defies God by obtaining fire (Age of Fire). The second movement is a trialogue: the vibraphone sounding the inflexible music of the spheres, the xylophone recanting the voice of organized religion, and the unpitched percussion establishing doubt and defiance (The Age of Reason). In the final movement man enters "Heaven" via the lunar landing in July 1969 (Age of Heaven). Each of the three movements are subtitled as follows: Age of Fire - Prometheus, Age of Reason - Voltaire, Age of Heaven - Luna: July 1969.

Grade Level: 4
Copyright: 1991
Number of Players: 9
Duration: 12:35

Listen to Recordings

Sample PDF

Instrumentation

Percussion 1 (bass drum, crotales [lower octave], cowbell, woodblock)
Percussion 2 (bells, tam-tam)
Percussion 3 (snare drum, crotales [lower octave], brake drum, suspended cymbal, ratchet, switch)
Percussion 4 (5-octave marimba, chimes, claves)
Percussion 5 (xylophone, 4.3-octave marimba, 3-octave vibraphone, claves)
Percussion 6 (4.3-octave marimba, 3-octave vibraphone)
Percussion 7 (4.3-octave marimba, tam-tam)
Percussion 8 (4 timpani, temple blocks, tam-tam)
Percussion 9 (bells, 3 drums, bass drum, maracas, cabasa)