BA DA BOOM PERCUSSION IN CONCERT Friday 20 May Enjoy a night of percussion works which explore the ideas of musical expression, pulse, and unity within the context of the percussion ensemble. Ba Da Boom will be playing pieces ranging from arrangements of classical works to modern compositions created by local and international composers.
WINTER FROM ‘THE FOUR SEASONS’
Antonio VIVALDI
arr. Brian Slawson Antonio Vivaldi is well-known as the Baroque composer of one of the most famous string pieces in history, The Four Seasons. Written in his distinctive style, Winter features melodies often broken into small phrases with forceful, syncopated rhythms, making it a perfect subject for percussion adaptation. This arrangement of Winter has been heard worldwide on the popular album Bach on Wood which helped garner Brian Slawson a Grammy nomination for “Best New Classical Artist.”
EMBER II
Alyssa WEINBERG
A quartet for prepared snare drums, this composition by Alyssa Weinberg features performers using a range of resonant metal instruments to activate sounds on the snare drum. Both intimate and groovy, players share instruments and apply extended techniques to play subtle, hypnotic patterns on every part of the snare drum.
MUSIC FOR PIECES OF WOOD
Steve REICH
“Music for Pieces of Wood” was written in 1973 and is designed for five players. It is written for claves, which are percussion instruments with particular pitches. There are two types used in this piece, the so-called standard and the “African” claves. The clave, which comes from Cuba (the word in Spanish means “key”), is made of two pieces of hardwood that the player beats. Audiences may be most familiar with the instrument in its use in the rhumba and other LatinAmerican dances.
NO REST FROM THE DANCE
Michael ASKILL
No rest from the dance is based on rhythmic material from the ballet score for Graeme Murphy's Salome (1997). The rhythms in the opening sections are derived from the scenes of Salome being pursued relentlessly by the lustful King Herod while the chorus of dancers chant: "Salome!
Salome! Dance! Dance!". The second section of the piece is based on an earlier part of the ballet featuring the young women of King Herod's court.
SLEEP
Eric WHITACRE
arr. Tsoof Baras Originally set to Robert Frost’s immortal “Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening”, Sleep by Eric Whitacre was commissioned by Ms. Julia Armstrong, a lawyer and professional mezzo-soprano living in Austin, Texas. She wanted to commission the piece in memory of her parents, who had died within weeks of each other after more fifty years of marriage. After completing the piece it became apparent that Whitacre had not secured the rights to the poem and was forbidden by Robert Frost’s estate and publisher from using the poem for publication or performance until 2038. Rather than letting the piece sit for the next 37 years, Whitacre turned to his friend and frequent collaborator Charles Anthony Silvestri with a request to write a different poem to the music that was written.
DEATH WISH
Gemma PEACOCKE
“I wrote Death Wish after watching a short film featuring New Zealand survivors of sexual assault. One of the survivors, Hinewirangi Kohu-Morgan, spoke about the out-of-control spiralling of her life for many years and how she developed what she called a death wish. In the piece I thought about the spooling and unspooling of energy and how we are all bound and driven by forces both within and beyond ourselves. With the greatest of respect for Hinewirangi Kohu-Morgan who has used her life to create art and music and to help survivors of abuse and those who have perpetrated abuse. I ōrea te tuātara ka patu ki waho. Aroha nui”
OVERTURE FOR PERCUSSION ENSEMBLE
John BECK
Overture for Percussion Ensemble by John Beck is a lively work for percussion ensemble. The introduction to the overture presents a rhythmic theme that is then passed around throughout the piece to the various pitched and non-pitched instruments.
Ba Da Boom Percussion: Steve Bryer, Sak Soenario, Willow Giles, Aidan Carey, Matthew Conway, Jessica Postle, Quinn Ramsey, Dara Williams, Emma Skegg, Connor Dinneen and Caitlyn Hermann