Cloud Dance - for percussion orchestra (14+piano)

Year: 2022

Difficulty: advanced

Duration: ca. 7:30

Purchase: C. Alan

You can peruse the score via this scrolling video:

Where I reside in North Texas, the summer of 2022 was terribly hot and dry. Nearly every day was over 100 degrees, and there was no rain for months. When the first rainstorm of the season finally came in mid-August, and brought with it a lovely 75 degree temperature outside, I was so glad to see it that I decided to go outside, sit down in my driveway, and just enjoy being rained on. I sat out there for half an hour, and I found myself watching the massive dark gray storm clouds shifting around. It was enrapturing to watch them change shape and collide into one another only to take new forms and repeat. It was like they were dancing. As soon as I arrived at that metaphor, I began hearing musical ideas in my mind, and so when I went inside, I sat down and began writing feverishly—it was like I could hardly keep up with the ideas taking shape in my mind. A week later, I had completed Cloud Dance.

Cloud Dance begins in the rainstorm I sat down in, emulating the sounds of rolling thunder, falling rain drops, and gently stirred wind chimes. It develops into a dance in which several central ideas are developed as if they were rain clouds being moved by the wind, shifting shapes, and colliding into one another only to take on new forms and repeat the cycle. Eventually, the dance reaches a fever pitch in a crash of thunder, and the work ends as the storm does: with the rain slowing to a stop and the warm summer sun beginning to peek out from behind the clouds.

A note from the composer: while the TCU 2022 PASIC world premiere recording of Cloud Dance is a great general reference for the work, the performance utilizes cymbals that were used to add to or replace existing musical material. These changes/additions were made without Harrison’s knowledge or consent and against his wishes; and they are inaccurate to the published score and parts. Harrison strongly disagrees with their usage in his work. He humbly asks of you that if you are to program Cloud Dance with your ensemble, please do so as is written in the published score and parts; they depict the work as it is intended to be performed and heard.