PROGRAM BOOK LISTING

Commissioned by and dedicated with admiration and deep gratitude to
Third Coast Percussion

Astral Kaleidoscopes (2026)        Augusta Read Thomas (b. 1964)
Homage to Claude Debussy, Bill Evans, and Miles Davis

Two Kaleidoscopes played without pause

I: Sun Ribbons:
Resonant, elegant, and spacious —
6 minutes

II: Dancing Luminosity:
Sprightly, spirited, and optimistic
7 minutes

Program Note

Commissioned by Third Coast Percussion and dedicated with admiration and deep gratitude to Third Coast Percussion, ASTRAL KALEIDOSCOPES is scored for percussion quartet playing two vibraphones and 26 [two octaves of] crotales.

A sound-world image floating in the back of my imagination for this composition led me to try to create a 13-minute arc evocative of something akin to flying in an empyrean region full of lights where pearls of the sun flow like multicolored ribbons in space.

TCP requested a portable work, one not requiring too many instruments and without complicated set-up logistics. My thinking was that many performance venues own two vibraphones and two octaves of crotales such that, to perform this composition, TCP would not need to pack or travel with any instruments.

The composition is in two kaleidoscopes played without pause. I: Sun Ribbons: Resonant, elegant, and spacious, lasting 6 minutes; and II: Dancing Luminosity: Sprightly. spirited, and optimistic, lasting 7 minutes. Further adding to the composition’s transportable nature, one can perform either kaleidoscope as a stand-alone work, resulting in a shorter duration entry on a concert.

To show off the vast expertise, virtuosity, and the auras, modes, and depths of TCP’s craft and skill, the music of the two kaleidoscopes varies. At times expressive, cantabile, gliding, floating, lyrical, soulful, poignant, dramatic, passionate, rhythmic, driving, sparkling, vivid, and optimistic. Despite the virtuosic teamwork that the composition requires, TCP makes it look easy to play.

For the entire composition, vibraphone 1’s  motor is on slow speed with pedal locked down; vibraphone 2’s  motor is on medium-slow speed with pedal locked down. This results in rich layers of resonance. Some resonances last at least 20 seconds as they melt into the background, while, at the same time, there is a middle-ground layer of resonance, and then there are the notes being stuck which are heard momentarily as a foreground layer. Every note moves on a journey from foreground to background. The elegant braid between these resonance layers is expressive and multidimensional.

The long-term harmonic progressing was carefully sculpted. The way chords and notes are dynamically (volume) weighted was intricately fashioned. For instance, a quiet bowed vibraphone note being played at the same time as a loud crotale note, or visa-versa, such that every note in the score is assigned a precise dynamic. The vertical spacing of chords is precisely designed. Close attention was also given to shaping articulations. For example, a blend of some notes with accents and others without accents; some bowed, others struck with a variety of different beaters.

Music for me is an embrace of the world, a way to open myself to being alive in the world — in my body, in my sounds, and in my mind. I yearn to reflect in my own singing and composing the ways that listening has changed me. ASTRAL KALEIDOSCOPES is made as an homage to three artists because listening to their music changed me and always inspires me: Claude Debussy, Bill Evans, and Miles Davis. There are no quotes of their musics, nor any quotes from any music. Rather, this composition respectfully celebrates the exceptional imagination, joy, love, soul, energy, great chords, musicality, individuality, and the sheer beating-heart-inner-life of their musics, music making, and musical citizenship.

It is difficult to express how grateful I am to the many extraordinary colleagues who have made possible this commission and world premiere. Thank you all!

—Augusta Read Thomas

Optional to include A.R.T.’s doodle of the MAP OF FORM AND AURA

MAP OF FORM AND AURA AS DRAWN BY THE COMPOSER

To obtain examination or performance material for this
Augusta Read Thomas work, please contact Nimbus Music Publishing.