Scored for as few as three marimbas (Splendid Wood) or as many as a hundred percussion instruments plus celesta, harp and piano (Grand Concerto), these five striking works by contemporary American composers abound in fascinating rhythms, ingenious combinations and juxtapositions of unusual instruments. Joan Tower’s DNA is built around pairs of instruments which, like the base pairs of DNA, contrive to make a whole work. Pulling Radishes was inspired by the measure and meaning of a 19thcentury Japanese one-sentence poem. El día de los muertos is a playful and nostalgic programmatic work based on the Mexican folk holiday The Day of the Dead, when the souls of the dead return to cavort with their living relatives in a joyous fiesta.