Third Coast Percussion member Owen Clayton Condon writes music influenced by minimalism, electronica and taiko drumming. His newest piece, Fractalia, written for Third Coast Percussion in 2011, is a sonic celebration of fractals, geometric shapes whose parts are each a reduced-size copy of the whole (derived from the Latin fractus, meaning “broken”).
The kaleidoscopic fractured melodies within Fractalia are created by passing a repeated figure through four players in different registers of the marimba. Condon’s acoustic and electronic works, including Fractalia, have been featured as the soundtrack to video and light installations at Frank Lloyd Wright’s “Fallingwater” and Anish Kapoor’s “Cloud Gate,” the famous sculpture (affectionately referred to as “The Bean”) in Chicago’s Millennium Park.
Steven Schick has always been an inspiration to me. He is an amazing percussionist, conductor and educator. When I was an undergrad, I will never forget a one week residency at the LA County Museum where he played three solo recitals, each with a different program, from memory! (more…)
Today’s video features a piece for Boomwhacker Quintet. Composed in 2008 by Spencer Dorn, “Cylindrophonicities” for Boomwhackers was premiered by the CSULB Percussion Ensemble. (more…)
I am having a blast posting on this site. The response has been great and I appreciate all of your continued support. One of the goals I wanted to achieve was to share videos of great performances and this video is the perfect example. This video features Robert Chappell’s Open Window for tenor pan (performed by Liam Teague) and marimba (performed by Robert Chappell). This piece was awarded 1st place in the 2006 Percussive Arts Society Composition Contest. Originally for tenor pan and marimba, this performance also features bass and percussion/cajon. [Unfortunately, I don’t know the name of the performers or I would add it]. It is a shame that this piece has only been viewed 1043 times since it was posted in 2009. Let’s do our part and share this piece and performance.
You can purchase the sheet music at Steve Weiss Music. Liam and Robert also have a CD featuring nine compositions for steelpan in solo, jazz, world, chamber, and steel band settings. It can also be purchased at Steve Weiss Music.
I often wish I could play castanets without mounting them on handles or in a castanet machine. If anyone else has thought the same, you have to watch today’s video featuring Lucero Tena (Castanets) on the Intermezzo from: Las Bodas de Luis Alonzo by Gerónimo Jimenez.
After watching this video, I think I will stick to my Black Swamp mounted castanets. (more…)
I have featured Christopher Deane before on PercussionEducation.com with his tambourine master classes. He is also a great composer and has written a lot of solo and ensemble music for percussion. Today’s video features Doug Perry performing Mourning Dove Sonnet. According to Mr. Deane, “Mourning Dove Sonnet was composed as a concert vibraphone solo in which the musical material was focused on an integration of traditional and non-traditional performance techniques. It is, in it’s essence, a wordless art song for vibraphone. This piece contains a literal transcription of a Mourning Dove song. Mourning Dove Sonnet was written in Greenville, NC and was first performed by the composer at the 1983 North Carolina Percussive Arts Society chapter Day of Percussion.” (more…)
