Research Point - Percussion Compositions

I found the website mentioned in the notes very useful in finding compositions for percussion as it's not something overly familiar to me. I chose 3 to investigate that I thought would be useful in helping prepare for the first assignment.


Jolivet - Concerto pour percussion

I found a video of this on youtube. I thought watching it would be more useful as percussion is much more visual than other instruments. I found it interesting how Jolivet writes the orchestra lines; although he writes for Timpani and Vibraphone, it would be very easy for the orchestra to steal the limelight from the untuned percussion passages. Instead, he seems to opt to write very homophonically when the percussion is playing; the orchestra merely providing chords to go along with the percussion rhythm rather than trying to add a melody on top.


Bartok - Sonata for 2 Pianos and 2 Percussion Players

I found Bartok approached the use of percussion in a slightly different way to Jolivet; using the percussion players to provide interjections and contrast to the piano duet. I felt it was more a sonata for 2 pianos with percussion accompaniment rather than that all the players were equal. This may just be because, to the listener, it is easier to pick out a melodic passage on the piano than rhythm on the timpani or snare drum for example. That being said, the percussion added a colour to the music that you can't get from a piano, like I mentioned when performing the Poulenc Gloria with just piano accompaniment.

The third movement, however, gives the percussion a more front line role; the xylophone and timpani work really well together and provide good voices for conversation passages between the pianos and percussion. I found the ending quite ineffective; I could see that Bartok was trying to gradually die the music away, the piano dropping out and leaving the percussion on their own, but were it not for the end of the recording I wouldn't have released the piece had finished. Maybe this is what Bartok was looking to achieve.


Reich - Drumming

I found the opening to this, played on the bongos, fascinating. Starting with 1 player on 1 drum, Reich builds the texture and complexity of the music, bringing with it intensity. He managed to create rhythm and motifs using notes played by different players. Reading the background notes Marc Zoutendijk provides it mentions that Reich flew to Africa to study drumming and this definitely comes across in the rhythms he uses on the bongos; it sounds almost like rain falling onto bamboo or a wooden roof when it's at full pelt.

It's also interesting the sound the hard sticks makes. After a while you start to pick up 2 noises; the hard impact sound of the stick on the skin of the drum, but the actually tone of the drum lingering on means it begins to feel like two different sensations. Reich is clever in constructing a motif based on the rhythm created by hitting the bongos but also motifs around the pitch each drum has.