Shards is a quartet (or sextet) for trumpet, marimba and multi-percussion. The trumpet part may be played by C trumpet, flugelhorn or Bb trumpet. The percussion setup requires five temple blocks, high and low bongo drums, and five tom-toms that can be played by a single muti-percussionist or by three players.

The piece has four short movements in varying tempi and styles with a total duration of approximately 8'15".