Crystals - Thomas Duffy

Crystals (composed 1985) is a one-movement tone poem which is divided into four sections. Each section musically represents a type of crystal. Thus each section is a vignette with its own title and style, as follows. The first, Dark Ice, combines water sounds with quartal harmonies and a modal melody to suggest the mystery and terrible majesty of glaciers, icebergs, and things in and under them. The second, Underwater Rubies, again uses water sounds to suggest beams of sunlight ricochetting off gems spilling from a sunken treasure chest. The third section, Cyanide, is of a violent and percussive spirit which, by its brevity, mimics the horrible potency of its namesake. Finally, Monolith aspires to images of huge piles of stone and granite, either natural promentories or manmade, such as perhaps Stonehenge or the Big Ben's tower. Though impressionistically blurred and buried, throughout this section one can hear the chiming of Big Ben's hourly bells, sounding from the granite tower high above London. Crystals is recorded on the compact disc Denon 32CG 1877.

Pennsylvania Music Educators Association News: 1990: Grade IV: This is a one-movement tone poem which is divided into four short sections... Within its 5:35 duration much happens: water sounds, quartel harmonies, half-valves, whistlers, hummers, water gongers, mixed meters, and some traditional spashes of colors and motifs. A good work, a fun work, a great change of pace without painstaking rehearsal."

http://www.duffymusic.com/programnotes/crystals.html

I am familiar with this piece of music since it was played by my alma mater (Southwestern University) in the mid-1990s. One of the more unusual effects in the piece is that after the 3 minute mark and near the end, the percussionist strikes a gong which is then lowered into a metallic vat full of water. The piece was also performed by the Eastman School of Music.