Jockey Club New Arts Power JOCKEY CLUB New Arts Power, launched in 2017, is an annual Arts Festival presented by the Hong Kong Arts Development Council with the funding support from The Hong Kong Jockey Club Charities Trust. The Festival brings together established and emerging local artists to produce creative, approachable and engaging arts experiences for all.
In the past four editions, 43 arts groups have participated in the Festival. Together they produced 90 live performances and a remarkable number of major exhibitions. Uniting art groups and various organisations from the social welfare, academic and commercial sectors, the festival held over 550 community and school events, reaching some 460,000 participants. JOCKEY CLUB New Arts Power 2021 / 2022 has been launched in September 2021, featuring a total of 6 selected programmes that include dance, theatre, music, as well as presenting more than 100 community and school activities.
Table of Content About Toolbox Percussion ................................................................................................. 2 About Toolbox Manoeuvre ................................................................................................ 3 Director’s Choice ................................................................................................................ 5 Learning Percussions.......................................................................................................... 6 Percussion in Everyday Life ............................................................................................... 8 Rhythms in Nature ........................................................................................................... 11 Graphic Notation .............................................................................................................. 12 (Note: The English version is translated from the Chinese version. In case of discrepancies between the two versions, the Chinese version shall prevail.)
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About Toolbox Percussion Toolbox Percussion has promoted percussive arts programming in Hong Kong since 2012, and has curated diverse innovative music projects. As a creative incubator, the group is active in commissioning, collaboration, professional training, performing, recording, and touring contemporary performances. With a strong focus and belief in the potential of every young talent, Toolbox is committed to empowering audiences to discover the versatility of daily soundscapes by relating its work closely to the actuality of today’s Hong Kong. During 2018-19 season, Toolbox Percussion travelled to Asia Culture Center in South Korea, and made its US debut at the San Francisco International Arts Festival. Invited by the Chinese Culture Center of San Francisco, the group curated a sound-based exhibition titled A Double Listen to showcase its works. The exhibition reprised at H Queen’s in Hong Kong in 2021, in collaboration with different cross media artists. Supported by the Arts Capacity Development Funding Scheme, Toolbox launched its annual festival, Toolbox International Creative Academy (TICA) in collaboration with mainland and overseas universities from 2019-2021. The academy aims to provide professional apprenticeship opportunities through specifically focused areas of study and learning occasions with industry professionals. Toolbox Percussion is currently a three-year grantee of the Hong Kong Arts Development Council. FB / IG: toolboxpercussion
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About Toolbox Manoeuvre Percussion x Contemporary Dance x Literary Arts
Kafka speaks, the city stirs. Strange synthesis. The train rages, footsteps hasten. Hustling existences. The disoriented heart’s negotiating a new arrangement of reality. We’ll listen. Just listen. In Toolbox Manoeuvre, a team of cross-media artists join forces to construct a dreamy and mystifying mindscape of contemporary life. Choreographer Alice Ma and Wayson Poon will dance to new music and arrangements performed by Toolbox Percussion and Artistor Director Louis Siu. This is conceived as a sequel to Toolbox Mouvement, a collaborative project by Toolbox Percussion which has toured Gwangju in Korea, San Francisco in USA and Shanghai in China as well as locally in different forms since 2017. As a cross-disciplinary performance that blends percussion, contemporary dance and literary arts, rhythm plays an important role in connecting these three genres. Rhythm lays the foundation for percussion, and is also an important element for the other two genres. To the dancer, every move, pause and breathe is connected by rhythm. Rhythm also has a delicate relationship with literature – different literary types each has its own rhythm. For novels and prose passages, the pace of how one recites also attributes different emotions to the same texts.
Dancer credit: Alice Ma
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Louis Siu
Louis Siu is the Founder and Artistic Director of Toolbox Percussion, as well as Creative Director for MUSE3. In 2020, he was appointed as curator of The Classical: NEXT Opening, entitled Hong Kong / TAKEOFF, presented by the Hong Kong Arts Development Council. Siu served as Principal Percussionist of the Macao Orchestra and his orchestral appearances include concerts and tours with the Hong Kong Philharmonic, Hong Kong Sinfonietta, Qatar Philharmonic, Pacific Music Festival, Aspen Music Festival, Asian Youth Orchestra, Gustav Mahler Orchestra, the Busan Maru International Music Festival and Hong Kong New Music Ensemble. He was an ExxonMobil New Vision Artist at the 40th Hong Kong Arts Festival, where a full house solo recital was presented. Siu received his music education at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music and the Chinese University of Hong Kong, he graduated from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, and received his Master's Degree at the Central Saint Martins in Arts and Cultural Enterprise. He embarked PROJECTTT in the USA with award-winning Afiara Quartet to promote music for strings, percussion, and tenor timpani, creating a platform for composers to experiment, which was the skeleton of Toolbox International Creative Academy (TICA) which he found in Hong Kong in 2019 with grants from the HKSAR Government. Siu currently serves as a part-time instructor at the Chinese University of Hong Kong and taught at the School of Creative Media in the City University of Hong Kong, he has also conducted masterclasses at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, Hong Kong Baptist University, Kasetsart University, Silapakorn University, Xinghai Conservatory of Music, Hong Kong Music Office, Hanyang University, and was a Teaching Artist at the San Francisco Symphony. He maintains an active voluntary role with the Asian Cultural Council Hong Kong as alumni.
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Director’s Choice A percussion concert may feature diversified style – Chinese luogu, orchestra, and contemporary percussion ensemble. The following three are recommendations by Louis Siu. 1
Percussion Section of Philharmonic Orchestra Concert preparation by the percussionist from San Francisco Symphony “I embark on my music journey as a percussionist in a philharmonic orchestra, apprenticing from their lead percussionist. I used to serve as the teaching artist of San Francisco Symphony as well.” The orchestra was preparing for Symphony No. 4. As shown in the clip, the percussionist was adjusting his timpani drums and cymbals for the appropriate timbre.
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Contemporary percussion ensemble Elegy: Snow in June by Tan Dun Performing Unit: The Third Coast Percussion “As a composer, Tan earned his reputation with Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. He is particular interested in the changing nature of percussion gigs. The performing unit – The Third Coast Percussion – is not only Grammy winner but strategic partner of Toolbox Percussion.” Inspired by a play under the same title by Guan Hangqing, playwright in the Yuan Dynasty, the piece is a concerto rendered by a cello and percussion quartet.
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Percussion Ensemble Drumming by Steve Reich Performing Unit: Colin Currie Group “Colin Currie Group is specialised in reciting music score by Steve Reich, a US minimalistic composer, whose minimalistic oeuvres are epitomised by Drumming.” The tempo of Drumming is embodied with a single drum. As musicians join in, monophonic notes of different lengths are gradually produced. Piling up tempos and timbre, the music is collaboratively delivered by 12 musicians, whose instruments include drums, marimba, piccolo, and vocal music.
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Learning Percussions Common impression about percussions: • Are they only intended for accompaniment? • Can a percussionist perform all sorts of percussions? • It does not require formal training to be a percussionist? • A tune cannot be played only with percussions? Why can’t triangles take the lead? It is generally assumed that triangle, among classical music instruments, never take a leading role. To debunk such stereotype, composer Matt McBane wrote For Triangle in 2016, featuring 4 triangles with distinctive tone each. Every musician, by holding the instrument in his/her own fashion and hitting a particular part of it, produces minimalistic music that proceeds gradually with diverse tempo. For Triangle Performing Unit: Toolbox Percussion
The Historical Development of Percussion
The history of percussion can be traced back to remote antiquity. Percussion instruments can be seen in the traditional music of any race. The definition of percussion is straightforward: any tool that utters sound when being struck with hands. Regarding their meanings and instrument structures, percussions have undergone enormous transformations. percussions have, emancipating themselves from the context of traditional classical music, cultivated divergent artistic forms of performance and approaches, for instances, live events incorporating sound art, hybrid with electronic music, or compositions that favour minimalism. A percussion performance may also embrace improvisational elements.
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Military Drums
In ancient times, percussions were employed by the army to boost morale. The followings are performances by Clanadonia, a celebrated Scottish folk music group. Playing mainly Scottish drums and bagpipes, the band are currently busking in various cities. Scottish Street Performing Unit: Clanadonia
Contemporary Percussion
Hypothermia is a collaboration between Synergy Percussion, a 3-person percussion ensemble from Australia, and Collarbones, electronic music duo. Their oeuvre combines the organic rhythm of percussion and real time mixing of electronic synthesiser. Hypothermia Performing Unit: Synergy Percussion & Collarbones
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Percussion in Everyday Life Toolbox Percussion cherish the belief that rhythm resides in routine activities. The initial stage of rhythm creation is achieved by making a sound with knocking, scratching, shaking, scrubbing, or patting whatever substance: various body parts or any object. During our everyday life, we are unconscious of sounds with all different tempos and textures that encapsulate us. Let’s uncover them from the short film of Toolbox Percussion. Re-creating Sound Art in Daily Lives
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Let’s Clap!
Everyday objects and individual parts of our body can serve as practical tools for producing sounds. Let’s get ready and create your rhythm with your hands. Ways of clapping Your hands are the most convenient instrument with unlimited potentials. Their nuanced changes are already able to manifest versatile sounds and tempos. Listen meticulously to the differences among the sounds produced by using the following parts, curves, and gestures. Tips Jot down the quality and association from the sounds created by each manner of clapping. Find out your favourite style.
Warm-up Exercise
60 Claps Per Minute Use the stopwatch of your cell phone or any other device with the same function. Practice clapping at a rate of 60 times per minute. This will be the most fundamental tempo. Percussion Quartet with 8 Hands Let’s conduct a mini-percussion ensemble concert with your own hands. The following tables illustrate four disparate kinds of tempos. In a group of four, each person may create one of these tempos. Written in a four-four beat (1, 2, 3, 4), the verse consists of half-beat (+) occasionally.
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Round by Fung Lam
Fung Lam, a contemporary local composer, is a recurring partner of Toolbox Percussion. Their collective endeavour in 2016, namely Round, was an attempt to blur the rigid boundary between arts and day-to-day events by utilising a traditional tile-based game – Mahjong – as its instrument. Round premiered at a concert hall for classical music. During its debut, a Mahjong table was erected on the theatrical stage. Four musicians positioned themselves in the four directions as if playing a Mahjong game. The score was divided into three movements. The first, foretelling the winning in the finale, bore a stronger resemble to conventional performances. The second, by shuffling of titles, gradually constructed a multiplicity of rhythm. The finale was an impromptu. Specific indications were assigned to titles of assorted suits and numbers. The musicians made unusual improvisation by following the indication received from each title.
Excerpt of Round
Vast Arrays of Music John Cage (1912 – 1992)
John Cage, an avant-garde composer from the U.S., has his magic of redefining music. Initially exposed to classical music’s training, Cage was wholeheartedly engrossed with sounds, music, or even “silence” in quotidian life and the nature. His most renowned piece 4’33” (1951) is a work of a sheer silence. Without a single note of music, audience could casually perceive the ordinary sound beyond the silence or long-omitted inner voices of their own.
4’33” Performing Unit: K2Orch
Cage’s another legendary piece – Branches – has a unique “sheet music” on which there are only words without any intonation. The instruments Cage mentioned include speakers, cacti, and seed pods of royal Poinciana. Branches Performing Unit: Trondheim Sinfonietta
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Rhythms in Nature We have our miscellaneous senses magnified when we are in nature. Apart from hearing, we could perceive all sorts of tangible and formless sounds and rhythms with other sense organs such as eyes and skins. For those of us who inhabit in the city, we rarely have the intention to collect and record fragments or forms of discrete kinds of sounds even during a stroll in the nature. It is where the most beautiful sound and rhythm are likely to be found, as Toolbox Percussion believe. We could even imitate its sounds with an eclectic mix of common objects. The Music of Nature
John Luther Adams, an American composer, penned his large scaled composition – Inuksuit – in 2009. Staged in the Central Park in Indiana, the happening was participated by a total of 88 professional musicians, education practitioners, students, and amateur music lovers from 13 American states, who jointly paint a soundscape with sound and scenery from the nature. Inuksuit Performing Unit: Third Coast Percussion
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Graphic Notation Graphic notation refers to a creative work that transforms sounds, timbres, and rhythms into graphic. Short line/ long line (length of sound) Height of symbols (pitches)
Small dot/ large dot (volume) Assembled line/ disconnected dots (Tuplet / Staccato) Your Own Graphic Notation Create your own unique graphic notation to manifest sounds and rhythms in nature!
Try to spend 30 minutes on listening attentively through your senses. Transform multifarious kinds of sounds and rhythms to your own pieces.
More examples
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Participating Art Group: Toolbox Percussion Publisher: Hong Kong Arts Development Council Editor: Cultural Connections Design: Tong Chan Daily Date: October, 2021
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced without the prior permission of the copyright owner. All content is solely produced by the creative team. The views and opinions expressed do not represent the stand of the Council nor the Funder.
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