Some­thing funny has happened over the past couple of months: Crashing Through Fences has taken off. A small flood of people have ordered the score and sched­uled perfor­mances. If you’re one of those people, or are planning to become one, I’m going to come right out and ask: why? This is possibly, no defi­nitely, my most annoying piece. Piccolo and glock­en­spiel— I mean, are you kidding? Is this the reason my more expe­di­ence-minded compo­si­tion teachers told us to write percus­sion music? Do percus­sion­ists and flutists date each other a lot? I’m not complain­ing, in fact I’m thrilled— just a bit confused.