For most college students, it is the beginning of the Spring semester. (Only 4 months until summer!!!) It is also time for a lot of recitals. One question I get a lot during this time is “where do I find a solo/chamber piece for my recital?” Check out my resources below and then add a comment and let me know if I missed anything.
1) Colleagues and Teachers – Whenever I am looking for new repertoire, I ask my colleagues. A quick message on Twitter or FaceBook is a great way to ask people from all over the world. There may be new, unpublished pieces that I would never know about unless I ask my friends and colleagues.
2) Attend Concerts and Recitals – I try to attend as many local concerts and recitals as possible. When I attend concerts, I make sure I bring a pencil and get a copy of the program. As I am listening to the concert, I make notes in the program and then when I get home, I do some research. I have started a Word document with pieces I am interested in playing or pieces I want to avoid.
3) Conventions and DOPs – See #2. Also, if you go to PASIC, make sure you go to the Listening Resource Center. They have scores and sound samples of all of the past winners of the composition competitions. It is an incredible resource and I usually spend 4-6 hours listening to music whenever I go to PASIC.
4) Festival Repertoire Lists – (SCPEF, Geneva Competition, International Marimba Competition Paris) – These lists are a great resource, even if you don’t plan on attending the competition. I always make a copy of the list and when I have some free time, I go through the list and check out the pieces I am not familiar with. (As a side note, I also do this with Symphony audition lists, just so I know what is being asked).
5) Internet – YouTube, Amazon.com, iTunes, Composers Web Sites/Societies, Blogs (Percussion Axiom TV), Publishers (Tapspace, C. Alan Publishing, HoneyRock, Bachovich Music Publishers). I am always looking for composer and publisher websites that have score and sound samples.
6) Composer Resources – The The American Music Center and American Composers Forum are, in my opinion, some of the most under utilized resources for any musician. They both have a huge collection of scores and audio files of their member’s works. I have found many pieces through both of these websites and if there were no samples, a quick email to the composer was all it took to get a score and a MP3.
What am I forgetting? Where do you find new music? Please leave your thoughts below.
Originally posted on DrummChattr.com on January 24, 2011 by Dave Gerhart
Panorama, the National Steel Drum Festival in Trinidad and Tobago, is in full swing. The panorama groups have been preparing for the competition which happens every year on the Saturday before Lent. The groups are made up of 100 performers. For full coverage of the 2011 Panorama Festival, visit Pan on the Net’s website.
One of my all time favorite tunes from Panorama is Lord Kitchener’s Pan in A Minor. This award winning 1987 performance is by the Renegades Steel Drum Orchestra directed by Jit Samaroo. The Renegades, and Jit’s arrangements, are know for there tight engine room (rhythm section) and use of unison hits throughout the arrangement.
Is this the first Panorama video you have ever watched? What is your favorite Panorama tune or arranger? Leave a comment below and let us know.
Originally posted on DrumChattr on January 21, 2011 by Dave Gerhart.
Aaron Bebe performing on a traditional Ghanaian xylophone called the gyil. Filmed March, 2006 at the University of Ghana by Patrick Roulet. Check out the ease in which Aaron plays the gyil. (more…)
Mallet Quartet by Steve Reich, was co-commissioned by the Amadinda Quartet in Budapest, on the occasion of its 25th Anniversary. Also involved in the commission were Nexus in Toronto, So Percussion in New York, Synergy Percussion in Australia, and Soundstreams in Canada. The world Premiere was given by the Amadinda Quartet in Bela Bartók National Concert Hall on December 6, 2009. The American Premiere was given by So Percussion at Stanford University Lively Arts in California on January 9, 2010.
This work probably represents the most significant percussion work written in the past two years. Of the many works he has written for percussion, what do you think is Reich’s greatest? Leave your thoughts in the comments.
Third Coast Percussion performs Philippe Manoury’s Le Livre des Claviers – III – Sextour de Sixxens (Book of Keys, movement III: Sextet for Sixxen). Sixxen are metallic keyboard instruments that Iannis Xenakis developed specifically for his masterpiece Pléiades.
What are your reactions to the sound of these instruments? If you have been lucky enough to see all of Manoury’s six movement work live what impression did it leave on you? Leave your comments below.
Mamady Keita is an undisputed master of the djembe who has dedicated his life to furthering the art of West African music, dance, and culture throughout the world. I like to call him “the Michael Jordan of the djembe.” His performances epitomize the art form. Mamady is known to play special improvised and unaccompanied djembe solos (called “Djembe Kan,” or “the sound of the djembe”) for his classes on rare occasions. It is indeed a treat to witness these electrifying performances. This transcription comes from the earliest recorded performance of which I am aware, issued on the double CD recording Mögöbalu (Fonti Musicali fmd 205) in 1995. You will most certainly want to hear this amazing performance as you study the transcription. You can purchase Mögöbalu online at Rhythm Traders.
While you are there, I also highly recommend Mamady Keita’s other CDs Nankama and Wassolon, and the DVD Djembe Kan, featuring four American performances of this amazing improvisation. Each one is a unique creation. If you want to follow along with this particular transcription, however, you’ll need to get Mögöbalu.
Djembe Kan is a study in the ambiguity of African rhythm. When I first listened to it, I couldn’t tell if it was in four or in six! The effortless flow of rhythm seemed to weave between 12/8 and 4/4 time, now in one feel and now in the other. In his wonderful book, The Conga Drummer’s Guidebook, Michael Spiro gives the following description this rhythmic phenomenon: “Instead of being evenly spaced, certain subdivisions are pushed closer together, which makes the time feel blurry. Half the time you can’t tell is you’re in a duple feel or a triple feel. And we’re just not used to that ambiguity. Sometimes it even upsets us! I call the ‘averaging’ of rhythm between a four and a six feel ‘fix,’ (Four and Six)….” (Spiro 38). As you will see, Spiro hit the proverbial nail on the head with that assessment.
The notation key at the end of the transcription gives the most basic strokes commonly employed in djembe drumming (bass, tone, slap) plus some common embellished strokes (ghost strokes, muffled slaps, and high-pitched rim tones played with fingers). In order to keep the transcription clear and to avoid confusion and visual clutter, I intentionally left out two frequently-employed techniques Keita uses on this solo: muffled tones (“muffs”) and a secondary slap (sounds slightly lower in pitch and a bit more rounded in tone quality than a normal slap). When you listen to the recording, it should be apparent when these sounds appear.
The performance opens with a free introduction; unmetered and spontaneous. Tempo is firmly established at measure 1 (fifth line in the score) with the basic djembe accompaniment rhythm to Tiriba, a festive rhythm from coastal Guinea, near Boke. Most performances of Djembe Kan include some reference to Tiriba. In this transcription, the reference is comparatively brief, but it does establish a strong 12/8 feel. Things get a little fuzzy in measure 10, which I believe serves as a bridge to what I call the “A” section. The “A” section is characterized by a lilting feel of eighth notes on either side of a pair of sixteenths. This section (measures 11 – 34) is firmly in “fix.” The pair of sixteenths (as I notate them) show clearly what Michael Spiro referred to as “certain subdivisions…pushed closer together, which makes the time feel blurry.” In fact, the figures are nearly identical to Spiro’s description of Mark Lamson’s conception of “fix” as triplets with an “inside flam” (Spiro “Example 9” 41). The two middle notes are “squeezed together” ever so slightly, just enough to blur the distinction between “four” and “six.”
The “A” section comes to a close in measure 34, where an unusual phenomenon occurs. A quintuplet appears just before the “B” section commences in a straight 4/4 feel. Later on, septuplets also appear in both the 12/8 and 4/4 sections. These types of “grupetti” (as John Cage and Henry Cowell used to call them) are not commonly found in African drumming, but my guess is that Mamady employed these figures simply to allow his dominant hand to land on the “downbeat” without doubling. This could be viewed as similar to the “squeezing” of the sixteenth notes in the “A” section. The quintuplets and septuplets are simply and effortlessly “squeezed” into the flow of time. The “B” section, firmly in 4/4 with a rock-like feel recalling the dundunba part to Tiriba (although Tiriba is a 12/8 rhythm, the lowest dundun part lays down a straight four feel), runs from measure 35 to measure 76, where another grupetto leads back into a new section in 12/8.
At measure 77, Keita slips back into “fix,” in 12/8 time, a return of the “A” section running to measure 128. At measure 129, a five-bar “bridge” section in 4/4 sets up the final return of the “B” section in a much faster tempo marked “Vif” at measure 131. From there to the end of the solo, Mamady pulls out all the stops with a dazzling display of drumming.
I view the form of this Djembe Kan as essentially a four-part form, with the unmeasured introduction and brief “Tiriba” section preceding the opening:
Intro “Tiriba” (bridge) A B A (bridge) B
While some may argue against transcribing African music, I have found the practice invaluable for developing an understanding of a musician’s creative process and expressive vocabulary. I hope others will try transcription practice as an effective means of honing their improvisational skills. For students interested in improving their djembe strokes, take note of Keita’s clarity of sound, especially regarding the volume and presence of his tones and the melodic variation he achieves by way of ingenious employment of muffs and secondary slaps interwoven among the primary strokes in the flow of rhythm.
Do you play Djembe? Are there any specific questions you have for B. Michael? Leave you thoughts and comments below.
