After winning state in 2012, Warsaw Community High School Percussion Ensemble Director Mickey Ratliff was looking to challenge the group and himself with the music this year. “I think maybe there is something unique (with this group) because we were state champions last year. That motivated me to do something different this year to challenge myself and to challenge them. It’s also kind of a risky to use these effects at the start of the show. I wasn’t sure how well it would be received,” Ratliff said during an interview Tuesday afternoon. “I think we kind of stuck our necks out a little bit and tried something out of the box. But I think it’s being received really well and being appreciated, but I knew there was a chance that it may not be,” he continued. “I was motivated to take a chance and do something riskier because I thought we could handle it.” The theme of the ensemble’s show this year is “Angels in the Architecture.” It’s also the name of the piece by Frank Ticheli, a composer mostly of concert band literature, Ratliff said. Asked why he chose the Ticheli piece, Ratliff responded, “Well, because it’s cool. It’s different than anything we’ve tried before. We’ve done arrangements of classical pieces before, last year’s was a classical piece.” The ensemble also has covered rock, like the music of Rush a few years ago, and jazz. “This is a more contemporary-sounding piece and I just wanted to do something different than we’ve done before, both to challenge the students and to challenge myself,” Ratliff said. Ticheli wrote “Angels” with the intention of representing lightness and darkness, Ratliff said. The music has a lot of quick changes that go back and forth from pieces sounding angelic to pieces that sound foreboding and evil. “He meant the constant changing to represent the conflict within ourselves of our struggle between good and evil,” Ratliff remarked. The WCHS Percussion Ensemble starts the song with pieces of a sump pump hose that are cut into 3- and 4-foot lengths. If you spin them around, it gets a pitch that sounds eerie, Ratliff said. It’s meant to represent the voices of angels. Students also have crystal wine glasses that they run their fingers over to get certain pitches at the start of the piece to get an ethereal effect. “We’re trying to use it to set the mood for the theme we’re trying to get across,” Ratliff said. The percussionists started rehearsals in January right after Christmas break. At their first contest Feb. 16 at New Palestine, they placed third in the Concert Open Class division. The ensemble was just 3/10 of a point from second, and two points from first place. On March 2 at Pendleton Heights, Warsaw placed first. They took first again March 9 at their own invitational. While they are doing very well so far, Ratliff said, “Our goal is to always perform at our best and do better each time than the last. My philosophy is that our main competition is with ourselves. The ensemble we’re trying to out-perform is ourselves, not the other ensembles. If we do that, the scores and placements take care of themselves. Sometimes you win, sometimes you don’t. If you perform at the highest you are capable of, then you’re winning.” Saturday, the ensemble travels to Decatur Central in Indianapolis for the state preliminary competition. State finals are scheduled for March 23 at Ben Davis High School, also in Indianapolis. Only three seniors graduated from last year’s state championship team. This year, there are four seniors on the 18-member ensemble, with the rest being juniors and sophomores. Patrick Kelly is one of this year’s seniors, and he plays the bells. “It’s really awesome compared to all the other shows,” Kelly said of this year’s music. “It’s really cool.” Junior and vibes player Olivia Fisher agreed. She said the music is really challenging, but she likes the unique aspects of the show like the goblets and sump pump hoses. Kelly said he doesn’t feel the lightness and darkness while performing the music, but he really gets into it. Fisher, on the other hand, said she can tell the difference. “How he wrote the ending is really cool, how it goes back to darkness,” she said. Kelly is confident that this year’s ensemble has a good shot of winning state again. “If not winning, then placing really highly,” he said. There are only two new people on this year’s ensemble, he stated, and they are already excellent performers. “We have a lot of talent and experience,” he continued. “It would be really cool to win state again,” Fisher stated. “I’m not going to be torn up if we get second or third, but it would be cool to win state.” Regardless of the end result, Kelly said, “It’s just really awesome to play with everyone this year. It’s one of my highlights of the year.” “Percussion is one of my favorite parts of the year,” Fisher agreed.
