Percussion Quartet Concerto
Drum Circles was commissioned by the Baltimore, Oregon, Aspen Music Festival, Colorado, Curtis Institute, and Hartford Symphony Orchestras for The Percussion Collective, Robert van Sice, director.
Duration: 14 minutes
I. Rivers and Anthems
II. Sparks and Chants
III. How Can You Smile When You’re Deep in Thought?
IV. Spirits and Drums
V. Three Chords and the Truth
One of the things that a composer worries about in doing any concerto for multiple instruments is the problem of how to maintain focus on several soloists and to keep the interest over a larger time frame in doing so. Any concerto in some ways has to be about a kind of the ‘lighting design’ focused on the soloist, so that at any given moment the listener/viewer is aware of their importance and necessity in the big picture. This is actually surprisingly hard to do and maintain in a piece. Having many players potentially seriously decentralizes that focus, and this was something that also can be even more pronounced with a percussion quartet concerto with orchestra, where many of the sounds of the soloists are not pitch oriented, but the sounds of the orchestra all around them are.
I kept coming back to the idea of dialogue and a sense of delight in terms of my approach to Drum Circles. There are wonderful spatial possibilities with the four percussionists and three orchestral percussionists, and that figured prominently into the concept of the work, and hence the title.
Watching great percussionists play is kind of like watching great dancers- everything is in the body and it all has to be so beautifully choreographed to make it work. The players each have ‘stations’ and are moving around from time to time their various set ups. There are also just so many different kinds of instruments and ways of playing to observe. I think it is ultimately a visceral experience to watch them, but with surprising moments of balletic grace.
Each of the five movements of Drum Circles focuses on different sound worlds in the quartet. The first, second, and last movements are mostly ‘keyboard’ oriented- with the focus being around pitched percussion like vibraphones, chimes, bells, and marimbas. The third is kind of an ‘office scene’ centered around a typewriter. The fourth is a real drumming movement, where the quartet engages with the orchestral percussion players to form a ring around the orchestra of drumming instruments. A brief description of each of the movements follows below:
Rivers and anthems
Cascades of downward scales from which melodic material emerges, eventually into a joyous unison tune lead by the quartet with chimes, crotales, and vibraphones; there are some more
flamboyant soloistic materials that comes and goes as well. The quartet is mostly pitch- oriented in this movement.
Sparks and chants
An austere, chant-like tune is embedded in a kind of arid, spatial dialogue among the four soloists featuring claves, congas, and other dry-attack instruments. Eventually the chant transforms into a texture with a more Spanish feel.
How can you smile when you're deep in thought?
This is a real miniature at about 2 ½ minutes in duration. It is a kind of office scene centered around a typewriter and repetitive figurations that allow for some humorous dialogue between the quartet members, who are for this movement front and center on the stage.
Spirits and drums
This is a real drumming movement, and heavily involves the orchestral percussionists in a kind of terrifying sonic landscape reminiscent of thunderous Tyco-drumming. The quartet also uses cabasas, maracas, and rattle like instruments, in addition to the many drums.
Three chords and the truth
For this movement, the quartet is again front and center on the stage, playing only marimbas and vibraphones; the music centers around a three chord alternation (in various inversions) among the quartet members. It is lyrical and noble in sentiment.
Drum Circles was commissioned by the Baltimore, Oregon, Aspen Music Festival, Colorado, Curtis Institute, and Hartford Symphony Orchestras for The Percussion Collective, Robert van Sice, director.
—Christopher Theofanidis
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