Innovative Percussion ECWGAR A Garden of Weeds

A Garden of Weeds by Cliff Walker is inspired by a quote from Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tale Thumbelina: "The witch smiled and returned to her garden of weeds." This piece is an attempt to reconcile and contrast the imagery of the pleasant and not so pleasant and explore the challenge of something "ugly" being framed as beautiful. A Garden of Weeds is a programmatic attempt at a "reverse chronological soundtrack" as to what the Garden of Eden may look like if stumbled across today: a garden of weeds.

This piece requires 9 performers and runs about 5'12". Instrumentation: bells, two vibraphones, chimes, xylophone, three marimbas, timpani and percussion (3 large concert toms, concert bass, suspended cymbal, 2 ride cymbals, swish cymbal, triangle, 2 woodblocks, 2 shakers, vibraslap, icebell, lion's roar, and tang-tang).