5/18/21 Percussion Ensemble Spring Concert

Duende

Francisco Pérez (b. 1990) Peyton Green, Annaliese Heim, Jonathan Hickox-Young, Cosette Isakson, Miranda Smith, Mackenna Tolfa, Rachel Yurik

Inspired by a fond musical experience in Spain, Duende is the fusion of many musical idioms I absorbed during the spring and summer of 2017. In the months leading up to the work’s composition, I began to explore the music I grew up listening to as a child at a much deeper level and went through a “phase” (mostly Afro-Cuban genres and 1980s works of Steve Reich) where I gravitated toward music that moved me both physically and viscerally. In doing so, I recalled the beautiful performance of flamenco I witnessed during the summer of 2013 in Madrid.

The term “duende” has a variety of meanings in Spanish. In flamenco, it refers to a state of inspiration and extreme, almost magical, perceptiveness which “overtakes” a performer on rare occasions. Others may perceive a “duende” as a sort of supernatural spirit, which, for some reason, reminds me of the work’s main rhythmic motive.

Duende was commissioned by Dr. Andrew Eldridge and the University of Texas at Arlington Percussion Ensemble and premiered in November 2017. (Note by the composer).

Kibo

Annaliese Heim, Snare Drum soloist Miranda Smith, Rachel Yurik, vibraphones Peyton Green, Jonathan Hickox-Young, marimbas

Andrea Venet

Kibo is inspired by the beloved ‘80s tune Africa by Toto. Kibo is actually the highest point and one of three volcanic cones on Mt. Kilimanjaro in Tanzania. While not my intention to be a “cover” of Africa, the piece has rhythmic cells and harmonic motives inspired by the original song.

The first version of this piece was written in 2005 while I was studying rudimental drumming with Bob Becker (Nexus). At the time he was developing his book Rudimental Arithmetic (2008), which explores conceptual relationships between arithmetic, rudiments, and rhythms while explaining application to things such as sticking permutations, meter and grouping, and polyrhythms.

Since that time I have also added to the piece based on inspirations from other rudimental snare drum styles, particularly the Pratt solos and the French-American hybrid rudimental style championed by American composer Joseph Tompkins. Ultimately, Kibo is a synthesis of many influences throughout the years and was my way to “song-write” on snare drum. (Note by the composer).

Sculpture in Wood Rüdiger Pawassar (b. 1964) Christian Anderson, Zak Bohte, Aarush Bothra, William Kim, marimbas

Sculpture in Wood was written in 1995 for the Marimba Art Ensemble Basel/Switzerland. The quartet played the world premiere at a percussion festival in Freiburg in 1995 and later recorded it on the CD Japan Tournee 97. Since then, the piece has been performed all over Europe and most recently has become a hit in the United States with Universities and professional marimba ensembles. The composer states that when writing this work it resembled to him the making of a wood sculpture where in his drafts, many parts were cut off, added again, shifted, and intertwined with one another. Not to mention the semicircular formation of the marimbas quartet is a sculpture of wood in and of itself. – Pawassar (PercTek.com) Mudra

Bob Becker (b. 1947) Peyton Green, Snare Drum soloist Calvin Stromwall, glockenspiel/bass drum; Mackenna Tolfa, songbells; Cosette Isakson, vibraphone; Annaliese Heim, marimba

"The musical language found in [my recent works] has been evolving in my music since as long ago as 1982 with Palta, a kind of concerto for the Indian tabla drums accompanied by traditional western percussion instruments. The approach became explicit in 1990 with the percussion quintet Mudra, where the idea was to extract a functional harmony from a purely melodic source: specific ragas of Hindustani classical music. (The term rag was once succinctly defined by the musicologist Harold S. Powers as 'a generalized scale, a particularized mode,' although Indian musicians usually give the word a more poetic meaning: 'that which colors the mind.') Even though Indian music is generally characterized as being elaborately melodic with no harmony (by western European definitions) whatsoever, my personal experience has always been one of subliminally perceived harmonic movement, a sensation that is clearly related to my cultural background and musical training. This kind of cross-referencing is always experienced when one strong cultural expression encounters another and, in my opinion, this perceptual phenomenon will be the defining issue in all of the arts and politics of the 21st century. Musically, I have found this effect to be most pronounced in ragas which contain relatively few tones. The pentatonic modes containing no fifth scale degree (for example, the ragas Malkauns, Chandrakauns, and others) have, to my ear, the most ambiguous and intriguing harmonic implications. Rag Chandrakauns - traditionally linked to the full moon and late-night hours and with the scale degrees tonic, minor third, fourth, minor sixth, major seventh - has always attracted me. I have applied a variety of compositional and mathematical devices to these interval relationships to determine both the melodic and harmonic content of all of my music for the past twelve years. Most recently, I have used a matrix of four nontransposable nine-tone scales to derive the same interval relationships, resulting in a further expanded harmonic landscape. In 1971 the Montreal poet Louis Dudek wrote the following short but penetrating verse which seems to go to the heart of this method of working: 'We make our freedom in the laws we make,/And they contain us as the laws we break/Contained a remnant of an ancient music/That a new music in its laws contains.'" (Note by the composer to the LA Philharmonic for a performance at the Hollywood Bowl).

Ragtime Robin Log Cabin Blues

George Hamilton Green (1893 – 1970) Peyton Green, xylophone soloist Olin Edwards, Miranda Hanson, Katie Hicks, William Kim, marimbas

George Hamilton Green, Jr. was a xylophonist, composer, and cartoonist born in Omaha, Nebraska. He was born into a musical family, both his grandfather and his father being composers, arrangers, and conductors for bands in Omaha. From age four G.H. Green showed a prodigious talent as a pianist; he then took up the xylophone and by the age of eleven was being promoted as the “world’s greatest xylophonist” and was playing for crowds of 7,00010,000. In 1915, when Green was 22 years old, a review in the United States Musician stated: "He has begun where every other xylophone player left off. His touch, his attack, his technique, and his powers of interpretation in the rendition of his solos being far different than other performers. To say his work is marvelous and wonderful would not fully express it." George Hamilton Green wrote several pieces for solo ragtime xylophone with accompaniment, as well as a xylophone method book which continues to be used by percussion pedagogues across the country. He was a popular recording artist starting in 1917 with the Edison Company and was employed, along with his two brothers, Joe and Lew Green, as the original sound music crew for Walt Disney’s first three cartoons. Green was an important ragtime composer and authored many pieces that remain standards for the instrument even today. He retired from performing in the late 1940s to pursue a successful career in cartooning. Green would die in 1970, just a few years before a revival in the popularity of his ragtime xylophone music, and before his induction into the Percussive Arts Society Hall of Fame in 1983. The rebirth of his music was led by members of the NEXUS Percussion Ensemble in the late 1970s. Through their efforts, G.H. Green’s xylophone music has been preserved and remains a relevant part of contemporary percussion pedagogy and performance.

Colossus

Miranda Smith, Timpani soloist Christian Anderson, Aarush Bothra, Olin Edwards, Miranda Hanson, Cosette Isakson, William Kim, percussion

Eric Rodis

“Colossus was written during my first year of study at the University of North Texas. It was a year of continuous exposure to new and exciting musical ideas for me. Being both a student of the percussion and composition departments, I sought a way to combine all these experiences into a single endeavor. Shortly thereafter, I learned of the Percussive Arts Society Percussion Composition Contest and consequently began working on a piece to enter in its category of “Timpani Soloist with Percussion.”

In writing the piece, my goal was simply to feature the melodic capabilities of the timpani while keeping the music as approachable and idiomatic as possible for the soloist. As the piece developed, however, I found the percussive tendencies of the instrument continuously worked their way to the forefront. The end result became less a demonstration of the instrument’s cantabile qualities and more a musical battle pitting the timpani against its own bipolar nature.

Following the piece’s submission to the Percussive Arts Society contest (where it won 3rd prize), I continued to refine the work into its current form. Colossus was first performed on October 29, 2002, by the UNT Undergraduate Percussion Ensemble under the direction of percussion professor Christopher Deane with timpani soloist Sean Redman. Special thanks go to Christopher Deane for championing this piece for so many years and for getting me to finally seek its publication. Without his encouragement, the piece would have remained forever unseen and unheard beyond its premiere performance.” (Note by the composer)