The Hinchinbrook Riffs
by Nigel Westlake (2009), for marimba and digital delay
The piece consists of a string of "motives" or "riffs" that are digitally copied within the delay & made to repeat 600 milliseconds (about half a second) after they have been performed "live". The performer is required to interlock with the delay signal by adhering to a strict tempo indication (100 beats per minute), creating the riffs to interplay & trip over themselves, causing interesting rhythmic & melodic variants that surge and ebb in wave-like formations.
Von Kuster Hall, University of Western Ontario
September 2020
Side by Side
by Michio Kitazume (1989), for percussion
Von Kuster Hall, University of Western Ontario
September 2020
Impressions pour caisse claire et deux toms
by Nicolas Martynciow (1999)
Impressions for side drum and two tom-toms lasts about eight minutes, making it one of the longest pieces ever written for the side drum. The last work of comparable dimensions was The Same is the Same by Klaus Huber, written over ten years ago. Impressions is in three movements, each of which may be performed separately. It demands a very competent technique, and attempts to explore new avenues, since side drum composition, with a few exceptions, has developed relatively little – hence the use of brooms and playing techniques based on bouncing sticks. The piece is further enhanced by the high and low tom-toms which accompany the side drum.
— Nicolas Martynciow
This performance was part of a lecture recital on Impressions and contemporary snare drum performance in support of my DMA from the University of Western Ontario. A link to the entire lecture can be made available upon request.
Von Kuster Hall, University of Western Ontario
January 2020
Boris Kerner
by Caroline Shaw (2012), for cello and flower pots
“Boris S. Kerner lives in Stuttgart and is the author of Introduction to Modern Traffic Flow Theory and Control: The Long Road to Three-Phase Traffic Theory. We’ve never met, and we probably never will. But the serendipity of the internet, through some late night research and musing on the idea of friction and flow in baroque bass lines, led me to his name and his work. Boris begins with a fairly typical 17th continuo line in the cello that leans and tilts, sensitive to gravity and the magnetism of certain tendency tones, before getting stuck in a repeated pattern. The flower pots enter the scene as an otherworldly counterpoint to this oddly familiar character, introducing a slightly cooler temperature to the baroque warmth, and sometimes interrupting and sometimes facilitating the cello’s traditional flow of melodic traffic.”
— Caroline Shaw
Sonya Nanos, cello
Von Kuster Hall, University of Western Ontario, September 2020
Mariel
by Osvoldo Golijov (2008), for cello and marimba
“I wrote the original version of this piece in memory of my friend Mariel Stubrin. I attempted to capture the short instant before grief, in which one learns of the sudden death of a friend who was full of life: a single moment frozen forever in one’s memory and which reverberates through the piece, among the waves and echos of the Brazilian music that Mariel loved. Seven years later I orchestrated the piece and let the melodies and harmonies lead the music to a wider range of emotion: the journey is now different.”
— Osvaldo Golijov
Sonya Nanos, cello
Von Kuster Hall, University of Western Ontario
September 2020
Mudra
by Bob Becker (2003), for snare drum and percussion ensemble
“The instrumental ensemble in the original piece had a role similar to that found in traditional Indian dance concerts, where a solo drum is the principal voice. However, western instruments were not used to imitate an “Indian” sound. In response to the choreographic approach, classical Indian musical structures were allowed to influence the formal, rhythmic, and harmonic aspects of the music. The interval relationships of the raga Chandakauns (tonic, major third, fourth, major sixth, major seventh) were used to determine both melodic and harmonic content throughout the piece. Rhythmically, Mudra is based on two important and common features of North Indian music: 1. motivic development (palta), and 2. rhythmic cadence formulas (ti hai). These structural devices are used most systematically in the final drum solo section of the piece in which rhythmic — rather than harmonic — cadencing is used to create tension and ultimately accord.”
— Bob Becker
Mateen Mahri, Jake Schindler, Quincy Doenges, and Lexi Wright, percussion
Paul Davenport Theatre, University of Western Ontario, March 2018
The Summoning of Katakhanes
by Scott Harding (2007), for percussion duo
Dave Fair, percussion
Paul Davenport Theatre, University of Western Ontario, April 2017
Bell Plates
by Scott Lindroth (2002), for percussion and electronics
Paul Davenport Theatre, University of Western Ontario, April 2017
Karakurenai
by Andy Akiho (2013), for percussion duo
"Karakurenai" (Japanese for "foreign crimson") was originally written for solo prepared steel pan during a visit to Rochester, NY in June 2007 as part of the Synesthesia Suite; however, this piece can be performed on any combination of instruments and can include elements of improvisation if the performer desires.
Heritage Center for the Performing Arts, Alma College, February 2018