UVM Percussion Ensemble - Fall 2024Just
Like That – Josh GottryYouTube
video (played
w/mallets) YouTube video
(played w/sticks)
Just Like That is a percussion quintet scored for one
concert tom and one woodblock per player. Based on variations of a
traditional cascara pattern, this energetic and rhythmically
driven work weaves through several time signature changes and
dramatic dynamic contrasts. The original pattern is repeated,
offset, fragmented, and manipulated in a variety of ways to create
an ever-changing texture as underlying melodic lines are created
in the concert tom voices.
Ghanaian Master Drummer and composer Sowah
Mensah was a UVM James Marsh Visiting Professor from
2006-2011. While at UVM Sowah appeared as a guest lecturer
in classes in music, dance, sociology, anthropology, and religion,
as well as performing his own compositions with the UVM Percussion
Ensemble, Orchestra, and Concert Band. Bes
is an original composition for Ghanian xylophone (called a gyil)
by Sowah Mensah, the person to whom our first piece was
dedicated.The gyil
is tuned to a pentatonic (five-note) scale, and uses gourd
resonators under the bars.The
gourds traditionally have holes in them that was covered by a
spider’s egg nest membrane that looks like paper.These membranes give the
gyil a distinct nasal, buzzing quality.Each player uses rubber
tipped mallets that give a warm, but percussive sound.What we will play today
is a basic version of a very flexible piece.We begin with a
repetitive bass line, then four players move to a melodic, but
syncopated, theme.After
a number of repetitions, two of the players then switch to a
variation of this theme which is notable for taking the space of
two cycles of the bass part.Again, after several repetitions two of the remaining bass
part players fade out and introduce a second theme which is double
stops (two notes played at once).Eventually the piece fades to a quiet ending.
Theme 3 (audio) Quarter
#1 - "Heartwood" – TonerMIDIaudio
at 100 bpm
MIDIaudio
at 80 bpm Claves: MIDIaudio at 100 bpm
MIDIaudio at 80 bpm
Quartet #1 - "Heartwood" was
written....
Claptrap
– Paul SiskindUVM Percussion Ensemble
F19 audioSoundcloud
audio (with found objects....)
Claptrap
was written in 1987 in the form of a controlled group
improvisation. The composer, Paul Siskind, uses only 18
lines of music, none longer than two measures. The piece
begins with a non-metric improvisation. After a short
time, one player begins playing the first notated rhythm, in 4/4
meter. After a pre-determined number of repetitions,
Player 1 moves on to the second written rhythm while another
player takes up the first. This process continues until everyone
plays the same rhythm, at which point a second group
improvisation occurs, but this time metrical rather than
free. A similar process begins after this improvisation,
but the rhythms are in combinations of time signatures (7/8,
5/8, and 3/8) and the players move in pairs. The third
section is a nearly a mirror image of the first. Mr.
Siskind was a long-time member of the music theory faculty of
the Crane School of Music, SUNY-Potsdam.
La
Bamba is an example of the veracruzano, a traditional
Mexican dance named for the city, Veracruz, in which it has been
played since the nineteenth century.Works in this genre
are harmonically repetitive and rhythmically straightforward,
with elaboration occurring in the melodic line.The la Bamba with
which we conclude tonight's concert is the traditional piece
that in turn inspired the pop tune, La Bamba, made famous
by Richie Valens in the 1950's, and covered over the years by
many groups, including Los Lobos.