“Or By the Wind”
an original Composition for Percussion Ensemble
by Jacob Beinborn
Created for the Illinois State University
School of Creative Technologies
2025 Creative Jam - Music
One way or another…a hero must return home. Whether by foot, or as stories carried by the wind, their triumphs live on.
2025 Creative Jam Theme: “The Hero’s Journey”
Note: The Creative Jam took place over the course of about 40 hours, from the announcement of the theme, to the deadline of the project submissions.
Project Type: Percussion Ensemble Composition
Production notes: This project features a fully original score written in Sibelius, making extensive use of the Virtual Drumline 2.5 Soundset, as well as additional work in Logic, with some additional virtual instruments from Spitfire and Heavyocity. The narration script was realized using ElevenLabs.
Indoor percussion is an idiom that grew as an extension to the marching percussion activity, largely on the shoulders of marching bands and drum and bugle corps. It provides a means of continuing the marching percussion ensembles into the wintertime.
Ensemble instrumentation typically consists of standard battery equipment (snare drums, multi tenors, bass drums, cymbals), and front ensemble equipment (mallet percussion, rhythm section instruments, electronics). A typical show length varies by ensemble classification level (‘difficulty’). Shows usually range from 4 to 6 minutes. Because of the 1-3 minute time limit for this creative jam event, the goal was to communicate the story arc of the music within a shorter span of time. Minimal narration was written to support the concept, with the goal that the music largely carried the story.
The concept with my project is to focus on the return of the hero — one way or another. Rather than focusing on a specific hero or plot line, this project instead considers the archetypal hero concept. Not all heroes make it home physically, but their impact and legends do. This was the driving concept of this piece of music. The piece opens with a very solemn, militairesque statement. Timpani, harkening back to the origins of war drums. Our hero begins the journey home — worn, broken, but moving onward. A series of motifs quickly present themselves, including a two-note percussive pulse, almost heartbeat-like. Another motif, introduced by the metallic voices symbolizes a future home that is longed for, later expanded upon as well as given a new harmonic context and more optimistic feel. The closing passage begins like the sun cresting over the horizon, the start of a new day, a new future, the hero’s triumph returning to their home, one way or another.