Beach Ball Games for Orchestra

« An interactive piece with the audience that gets crazy success … the notion of “fun” in the concert hall takes on a whole new meaning here. »
– Ludwig van Montréal, Caroline Rodgers

«Salle Wilfrid-Pelletier has rarely been so joyful and boisterous.»
– Le Journal de Montréal, Christophe Rodriguez

«It’s a very brilliant, interactive way of bridging genres and cultures and combining different media.»
– Stir, John Lucas

« A very interesting musical experience. »
– Gamer Québec, Michaël Bertiaux

« It creates a lot of reaction among the audience. »
– Le Soleil, Josianne Desloges

Beach Ball Games for Orchestra is a series of three small crowd gaming titles conceived of by Maxime Goulet. The three games are Become a Wizard, Catch the Stars and Bomb the Skull.

During the concert, the audience plays the game by moving a ball in response to projections on the screen to collect magic objects, assemble constellations or set off bombs. These crowd games aim to get the members of the audience working together to achieve a common goal.

Instrumentation:
– Version for symphonic orchestra: 2.2.2.2 / 4.2.3.1 / pno-cel / hrp / timp+3 / strings (3rd perc, pno-cel, hrp are optional)
– Version for wind orchestra: 2fl, 1 picc (optional), 2ob, 1eh (optional), 2bsn, 3cl, 1cl-b / 2sax-a, 1sax-t, 1sax-b / 4hrn, 3trp, 2tbn-t, 1tbn-b, 1eup, 1tuba / hrp, pno and cel / timp / 3perc (arr. Yann Bail)

Duration: 5 minutes

Suggested Program:

Beach Ball Games for Orchestra could be programmed in a concert of video game music or along with works inspired by video games, such as Level Up!
Beach Ball Games for Orchestra could also be paired with other works that are inspired by games, such as Jeux d’enfants (Children’s Games) by Bizet, Jeux de cartes (Card Game) by Stravinsky, and Checkmate!.

Commissioned by the Orchestre métropolitain.

Premiere: September 29th, 2017, by the Orchestre Métropolitain and conductor Dina Gilbert, during the Montreal Video Game Symphony, for the 375th anniversary of the city of Montreal, at the Salle Wilfried-Pelletier, in Montreal, QC, Canada.