Percussion Ensemble

About the event

Program Notes for Percussion Ensemble concert:

Music for Pieces of Wood – Steve Reich (b.1936) is one of America’s leading composers. He was trained as a drummer and quickly became interested in the music of Asia and Africa. He has also developed extensive interested in the traditions of Jewish music. During the late 1960s, Reich experimented with combining composition and performance, integrating the traditions of notation and improvisation. Perhaps his most famous work is a piece called Drumming, first performed in 1971, which incorporates aspects of ritual into performance. Reich’s music has consistently focused on issues of rhythmic variation and repetition. Within a minimalist texture he has achieved a subtlety of timbre and listening that projects an intensity of color, mood, and contemplation we might associate with the luminosity of certain minimalist painters and sculptors, including Agnes Martin and Sol LeWitt. Reich is one of America’s genuine innovators and perhaps the greatest exponent of musical minimalism. But his minimalism, ironically, is truly one of surface.

Tempting Time is a piece that I began working on during the summer of 2016.  The title is in reference to the rhythmic passages within the piece as well as the concept of real world time itself.  While time moves linearly, there are moments in our lives where it feels as if time is speeding up or slowing down.  The tempo, rhythms, and instrumentation of various sections within the piece were written to replicate these feelings of inconsistent time flow.  Inspired by progressive rock music, I had the goal of writing something that has an array of transformations making it difficult for the audience to predict where the music would go next. (Jake Kargl)

Inspired by the percussive mallet music of Uganda, the Akadinda Trio is a unique piece, which uses three players playing one 5-octave marimba.  Numerous melo-rhythmic lines interlock to form interesting polyrhythmic patterns (3:2, triplet:duple, etc).  No one part is particularly difficult, yet concentration is required so as to realize the interlocking rhythmic patterns in a fashion that seems relaxed, yet grooves!

Shiva for Flute and Percussion Ensemble received its world premiere in 1996 by the WSU Percussion Ensemble with flute soloist Ann Yasinitsky (composed for and dedicated to her).  Tonight’s performance features our new faculty flute professor Dr. Sofia Tegart.
The composer Brent Pierce writes the following about his composition: Maheshvara, the great god: the third aspect of the Hindu trinity; the one who changes the universe, the ruler of Nature. Lord Shiva is believed to have created music, dance and drama.  He is often represented as the Cosmic Dancer, Nataraja.

Ting is a work simply intended to explore resonant metal, non-pitched instruments within the percussion family in a chamber setting.  It is composed by Josh Gottry (b.1974) and is written for four players playing Finger Cymbals, Triangle, Small Cymbal and Ride Cymbal.

Metric Lips – Bela Fleck, arr. by David Steinquest – Named after composer Bela Bartok, banjo virtuoso Bela Fleck has performed world wide in a wide array of musical genres, and is most well known for being the frontman of his ensemble Bela Fleck and the Flecktones. In this tasteful arrangement of Fleck’s original bluegrass composition, vibra- phonist David Steinquest captures the essence of Fleck’s style and moves it into the percussion idiom to create a challenging piece that is fun for both the audience and the performers.

Bonham is an ode to rock drumming and drummers, most particular Led Zeppelin’s legendary drummer the late John (“Bonzo”) Bonham.  The core ostinato of the score, played by the drum set, is taken from Led Zeppelin’s When the Levee Breaks, although there are references to other Led Zeppelin songs as well, such as Custard Pie and  Royal Orleans.  In addition, two other sources are cited:  The Butterfield Blues Band (Get Yourself Together) and Bo Diddley, whose adoption of the traditional “hambone” rhythm added so much to the distinctive style of his material. – Christopher Rouse