This
work is published for performance and study. The performance set
includes a saddle-stitched full performance score for the pianist and a
loose-leaf part set for the percussionist (one player).
About the work:
First written for piano solo, the composer transcribed the original into mallet percussion and piano. Psathas says: 'Rhythm Spike - as it was originally named - became Spike,
for mallet percussion and piano. Taking as its starting point the most
primitive of musical ideas, the repetition of a single note, Spike
moves through many environments, rising and falling in waves of
intensity - some ecstatic, some dark, some effervescent - all the while
maintaining this primary impulse, tapping out a one-note rhythm. I once
received an e-mail message from a music student who claimed to have
deciphered the morse-code messages embedded in the piece.'