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Two Percussion Players Published: C F Peters 1978 Duration 9' Text for this work by Kay K. Maves Performance Notes (by the composer) Premiere: Unknown (anybody know?-tell me!) Perc. equipment required: Performance Map Perc I: Bongos, Suspended Cymbal Perc II: Bass Drum ;Wood Blocks (2), Pitch pipe Share: Snare Drum, Tom tom, Marimba Notes |
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This work was written for the Sigma Alpha Iota American Music Awards
Series while I was teaching at Duke University, in Durham,
North Carolina, in 1975. The work is based on the same music and texts (by
my then wife, Kay) that we had used for songs entitled Gargoyle and
The Unicorn: children's songs for classroom teaching which were
subsequently published in the now defunct American Book Company's series
forchildren K through 12. Those works for children are now published on
line 
.
Gargoyles perch by day on the rooftops,
With frozen stone smiles,
and long, lolling mouths ajar,
no movement,
no sound,
'til dark,
and then
GARGOYLE!
Zipping, slipping
thru the night air!
Laughing, leering
tearing thru the night air!
Laughing leering
tearing thru the quiet air!
Scaring cats,
chasing bats
'til dawn.
When each one flits to his roof top,
and stares with his cold stone eyes
at the busy streets
thru the long bright day.
And knows that night will come
When
GARGOYLE!
Zipping, slipping
thru the night air!
Laughing, leering
tearing thru the night air!
Laughing leering
tearing thru the quiet air!
Scaring cats,
chasing bats
Reeling, spinning,
shrieking, grinning,
GARGOYLE!
Most unique
Is the Unicorn;
A horse of sorts,
he has one horn--
Right in the middle of his forehead!
Poor Unicorn, Alas!
One horn he has; Alas!
It has no use, no use whatever.
It will not do to scratch,
to dig, so swat a fly;
It sits there to disguise,
I guess,
his left eye from his other.
Eye?
Yes!
If you were he,
you'd find that horn quite irritating.
To know one eye, was hid from the other
would be infuriating!
Eye?
Of course!
Most unique
Is the Unicorn;
A horse of sorts,
he has one horn--
Right in the middle of his forehead!
Fish, flesh, or fowl?
The Siren isn't sure
she's either
or all three
or only one!
She sings,
A song
Alone,
that no one knows,
high on the rocks above the sea.
Her head is very like a girl's
with long and lovely heir,
But she has as well a fishes tail
And wings upon her feet
to speed her through the upper air.
The Siren sits alone
and sings and sings and sings
for no one.
