PERCUSSION
ENSEMBLE MUSIC 1910-1940
The short
journey of percussion in the early 20th century began with heavy,
thunderous explosions. During the
Impressionist Movement it became delicate tinkling sounds to create
effect. As a reaction to that, in the
1920’s music hit the machine age and everything was being used from airplane
engines to metal blocks. Bartok made
percussion “normal” again by giving it musical significance in his
music. In the 1930’s percussion was
changed by the “art of noise.” This
phase is where the sound is what is important, not pitch or harmony. i.e. tin
cans, brake drums, bell coils, etc.
Pre-1930’s the
most widespread use of the percussion ensemble was in the marching band. The percussion section usually consisted of
1 or 2 field drums, a bass drum, and cymbals.
The reasons
that the modern percussion ensemble developed when it did has been divided into
many conjectures:
The rise in
the popularity of modern dance also gave a boost to the world of percussion
because of the important need to define rhythmic change.
The
traditional role that percussion played in the orchestra was changed by
Stravinsky. He freed percussion from
the traditional vertical hits into giving them regular horizontal rhythmic
melodies. Examples of this are present
in: Petrouchka (1911), Rite
of Spring (1913), and Les Noces (1923)
Written
for cello and 10 instruments with the percussionist playing many traditional
instruments
For
2 violins, 2 violas, 2 celli, and 2 thundersticks
Expanded into
the Pan American Association
Founded by
Varese
Took note of
the works of Antheil
Varese was the president, but Cowell took over during Varese’s time in France
Cowell was the
leader of North America
Roldan was the
leader of the West Indies
Chavez was the
leader of Central America
Group
exchanged ideas about the use of percussion and the future of it. Between 1938-1042 over 40 compositions for
percussion were created.
Cowell was the
editor and creator of New Music Quarterly (the name has since been
changed to Music Quarterly), which was an outlet for contemporary
scores.
Group of the
West Coast composers
Lead by Cage
and Harrison
Gave concerts
of only percussion music
Other members
were Ray Green, Gerald Strang, and JM Beyer
Supported
those composers who stood apart form the European mainstream
Born Trenton,
New Jersey July 8, 1900
Died February
12, 1959
Pianist
Traveled to Europe to become a concert pianist, but ended up studying composition instead
Pupil of
Ernest Bloch
Composed rhythmically violent music to escape the “fluid diaphanous lechery” of Impressionism
Autobiography Bad
Boy of Music was published in 1945
“In the future, composers would prefer
to compose for machines rather than for people, because the machines would be
more predictable, and offer a wider range of sound.”
“A conductor does not want temperamental
players in his orchestra. All he wants
is a player to carry out the orders of the music perfectly or, in other words,
he wants a mechanical player.”
Ballet
Mecanique
(1924-25)
Instrumentation: 15 percussionists, 4 pianos, and tape (this version was completed in 1953 and considered the standard version to perform—previously it had anywhere from 8 to 16 pianos)
Duration:
18-20 minutes
Purpose: composed Ballet Mecanique as the music for the surrealist
film of the same name created by Dudley Murphy and Fernand Leger. Film features shocking images of machinery
and other objects disjuctly added.
Premiere: Paris premiere on June 19, 1926 was decently received, but the
Carnegie Hall premiere on April 10, 1927 almost started a riot it was so violently
disliked.
Not considered the first piece written for percussion ensemble because the melody line was given to the pianos, not the percussionists.
Thought to
ponder:
He was
ostracized as a child for being born out of wedlock, so did he try to go against
the grain of what society considered as traditional music as a way of not
accepting them, they way they never accepted him?
Born in Paris
July 12, 1900
Died March 7,
1939
Composer,
conductor, violinist, teacher
Violin
performance, Madrid Conservatory
1921 moved to
Cuba
1935 professor
of composition at Havana Conservatory
Used
Afro-Cuban rhythms and brought a revival to Cuban art
Introduced to the concert hall black Cuban folklore such as the tango, conga, son, and rumba.
Regarded as
the founder of the modern school of Cuban music
Used
indigenous instruments of both the melodic and percussive nature
First one to
use Cuban instruments in orchestral works
La
Rembambaramba (1928)
Ballet in which one of the suits requires six different groups of percussion instruments
Ritmicas
No. 5 and No.
6 (1930)
A set of 6
pieces grouped together, the first 4 are scored for woodwind quintet plus
piano, whereas the last 2 are purely for percussion
Number of
percussionists: 11
Instrumentation: all except for 2 of the performers play only
one instrument. Instruments are both
pitched and non-pitched. Most notes are
short in duration
Ritmica No.
5 is a study of the
son. See attached pages
Interesting
notation and instrumentation—see attached pages
Technically, the first piece written for just percussion ensemble, even though it is not traditionally recognized as such.
Thought to
ponder:
Is Ritmicas
not seen as the first piece written for percussion ensemble because as a group,
the movements are not just for percussion, or because this is a Euro centric
country and we were more aware of what was happening in Paris than in Cuba?
Born Paris
December 22, 1885
Studied with
D’Indy and Roussel
Founder of the
International Composer’s Guild in 1921
One of the of the founding fathers of percussion music, but his music is still seen today as avant-garde
Instrumentation: 13 players with 37 indefinite pitched
instruments and 3 with definite pitch.
Piano is included but for noise, not the melody
Form is either sonata form with an exposition, development, abridged recapitulation, and a coda or ABC.
Credited as
being the first piece written for percussion ensemble.
Styles are a mixture of Latin American and jazz, with uneven rhythmic patterns and meter changes
Other
important pieces featuring percussion:
Born Barcelona
March 13, 1911
Studied piano,
composition, and conducting with his father
1930 moved to
Cuba
Taught at a
variety of universities in Cuba
Director of the underground National Music Committee during the Revolution
Castro secured him many positions in the government including the national director of music
Music is
typically Cuban nationalistic with a touch of neoclassicism
Study in
the Form of Prelude and Fugue
(Estudio en Forma de Preludio y Fuga, para 37 intrumentos de Percussion,
Friccion, y Silbido) (1933)
Number of
percussionists: 22
Interesting instruments: (mostly singular in nature rather than multi-percussion setups) slapsticks, maracas, claves, guiros, police whistle, sirens, hand clappers, and 2 pianos
Number of
percussionists: 15
Interesting instruments: almost the exact same instrumentation of Study
in the…
Born
Henderson, Kentucky January 22, 1886
Died January
21, 1961
Contemporary
of Ives, Ruggles, Cowell, and Riegger
Member of the
American 5 of avant-garde
Pushed to have Americans discover the own experimental tendencies instead of always talking them from Europe
Received his
doctorate from Wisconsin Conservatory
Member of the
Pan American Association of Composers and ISCM
Director of
Federal Music Projects
Compositions revisited German Romanticism, but were more known for their abstract polytonal rhythms and chordal outbursts
Believed a composer’s duty is to “add new resources, evoke new techniques, and develop new sound patterns”
Music was
typically programmatic
Abongo (1933)
Number of
percussionists: 15
Interesting instruments: (some play only one instrument, others play more) many sets of timpani, water drums, and hand clappers, tin pans, and barrels
Form/Purpose: Large percussion ensemble and ballet
Vigilante (1935)
Percussion and
ballet
A Dance (1938)
Number of
percussionists: 6
Born Canton,
Missouri December 26, 1905
Began as a
violinist at age 10
Graduated from
Quincy Conservatory
Dropped the
Wagner from his last name to avoid musical tie-ins
Attended
Columbia Teachers College were he also studied composition
Eventually
moved to and spent the rest of his life in New Orleans
Compositional
Information/Style:
Fugue was on the same concert that premiered
Ionisation in 1931
Influenced by
Cage, Cowell, and Harrison
One of the
first to integrate African, Caribbean, and Asian instruments
One of first
to write for individual intensive multi set-ups for each percussionist
Huge jazz
influence. Focused on this because it
was the only true American form of music that was not of a European
origin. Big promoter of American music.
Used classical
forms, but in avant-garde ways
Stopped
composing after studying jazz extensively in New Orleans because he believed
that the musicians that would improvise could make up music that would be so
much more interesting than he could every hope to write
For his 85th
birthday, there was a concert of only his works to premiere some of his pieces
that had not been played before on December 24, 1990
The Music:
March Suite (1933)
Number of
percussionists: 3
Interesting
instruments: flat Haitian drum, slide
whistle, and piano
Three
Dance Movements
(1933)
In 1990, became Four Dance Movements with the addition of a Tango movement
Number of
percussionists: 4
Interesting instruments: slapstick, bottle, small dinner bell, and
anvil
Three
Cuban Pieces
(1939) (also titled Percussion
Studies in Cuban Rhythms)
Number of
percussionists: 4
Interesting
instrumentation: cowbells, guijada
(jawbone), and marimbula
Fugue
for Eight Percussion Instruments (1933)
Premiered on
the same concert as Varese’s Ionisation in 1933
Number of
percussionists: 8
Instruments: snare drum, bass drum, triangle, glock, xylo, piano, 4 timpani, 2 suspended cymbals
The
Chicago Sketches—7/18/1940
Ogou
Badagri—1932
Made in
America—1937
Trumpet
Concerto—1930’s
Born March 11,
1897
Died December
19, 1965
Composer,
writer, and pianist
Played violin at age 5 and was on his way to becoming a prodigy, but his health suffered so he had to settle on composition
1914 he went to University of California, Berkley to study traditional harmony and counterpoint as well as free music
First to come up with the idea of the prepared piano, but this was more developed by his pupil John Cage
Created the
use of the tone cluster and ways to notate it
Wrote a book on his new standards of
music and his notational practices New Music Resources
1936 he was
sentenced to prison on a “morals charge.”
Taught such
famous pupils as Cage, Harrison, and Gershwin
Composition for him was not long and complicated but a spontaneous explosion to a musical experience he had just had
Oriental feel
to his music using gong, rice bowels, and tom toms
Ostinato
Pianissimo
(1934)
Number of percussionists: written for 9 but can be played with 8 (this means 7 percussionists and one pianist)
Instrumentation: 13 indefinite pitched instruments and 3 with definite (2 pianos and a xylophone), including 8 rice bowls
Duration: 3 minutes and 30 seconds
Form: “the form of the work is an ostinatos which varies in length for each performer and in accent for the repeats.”
no large tonal
centers
very soft of
very loud dynamics, there are not cresc. or descresc. written.
Pulse (1939)
Number of
percussionists: 5
Duration: 4 minutes
Interesting instrumentation: temple gongs, pipe lengths, break drums, and rice bowls
Return
(1939)
Number of
percussionists: 3
Interesting instrumentation: Japanese cup gongs, Japanese wind glass, and pane of glass
July 11,
1888-1944
Born and
studied in Leipzig, but moved to US when she was 35
Earned her
living as a piano teacher
Close
association with Cowell, Cage, and Percy Grainger
Associated
with 1930’s experimental composition
One of the premiere composers in the Western world to focus on percussion
Most of her works are not published or recorded as of yet, but there are new movements going on to try to bring more fame and credit to her work
Signed her
scores JM Beyer to not bring attention to her gender
Died of Lou Gehrig’s disease, but the symptoms misunderstood as those of someone suffering for alcoholism
Music was
typically programmatic
Number of
percussionists: 9
Instrumentation: none is listed in the score
Continuous
change in tempi and dynamics
Dedicated to
John Cage
Number of
percussionists: 5
Instruments: tom tom, bass drum, triangle, tambourine, cymbal, xylophone, rattle, castanets, 2 Chinese blocks
Number of
percussionists: 6
Interesting instruments: anvil, string drum, metal bowls, thunder sheet, rice bowls, and Chinese wood blocks
(discrepancy
of actual author—suspected to be Harold Davidson)
Number of
percussionists: 9
Interesting instruments: trap set, Chinese woodblocks, siren, ratchet, 9 musical tumblers and piano
Percussion
Opus 14 (1939)
Number of
percussionists: 11
Interesting
instruments: metal bowels, anvil, and
string drum
Waltz
for Percussion
(1939)
Number of
percussionists: 9
See previous
packet for background info
Cage continued Varese’s work. Varese wanted to obtain electronic sounds with conventional instruments whereas Cage relied on electronic amplification for his unconventional instruments.
Quartet (1935)
Trio (1936)
First
Construction in Metal (1939)
Number of
percussionists: 6
Interesting instrumentation: 5 thunder sheets, sleigh bells, water gong, siren, 12 oxen bells, Japanese temple gongs, Turkish cymbals, anvils and Chinese gongs
Imaginary
Landscape No. 1
(1939)
Number of
percussionists: 4
Instrumentation: variable frequency recording, constant frequency recording, frequency recording, string piano, and suspended cymbal
Living
Room Music
(1940)
Number of
percussionists: 4
Instruments: unspecified except for any instrument that can be found in a living room ex: books, paper, door, etc.
Second Construction (1940)
Number of
percussionists: 4
Born
Clareshorm, Alberta February 13, 1908
Taught by
Koechlin, Toch, and Schoenberg’s
Received his
doctorate from USC
Editor of the New
Music Quarterly (during the time that Cowell as in jail)
Forte was in
computer music and electronic music
Concentrated on the linear aspects of percussion, making moving rhythmic lines thorough interplay with other percussion instruments
Percussion
Music for Three Players
(1935)
Number of
percussionists: 3
Interesting
instruments: anvil, maracas
Born in
Missouri September 12, 1908
Graduated from
the San Francisco Conservatory
Fan of the big
band era
Wanted to
develop an American style of music
Music was
typically programmatic
Three
Inventories of Casey Jones
(1936)
Number of
percussionists: 5
Interesting
instruments: bottle with marbles, pop
bottles, and piano
Lou Harrison
Born Portland,
Oregon May 14, 1917
Studied with
Cowell and Schoenberg
With the aid of John Cage they organized the first concerts of purely percussion music.
Studied in Tokyo, Taiwan, and Korea. Influence from these is seen in his works
PAS Hall of
Fame member
Instrument choices: Favored different sizes of toms and bass drums as opposed to using snare drums and timpani. Through travels acquired many different gongs, bells, cymbals and woodblocks.
Unconventional instruments: flexatones, musical saws, thunder sheets, wind glasses, flower pots, porcelain bowls, glasses, automobile brake drums, tortoise shells, and bell coils.
Bomba (1939)
Number of
percussionists: 5
Fifth
Simfony (1939)
Number of
percussionists: 4
Concerto
No. 1 (1939)
For flute and
percussion
Canticle
No. 1 (1940)
Number of
percussionists: written for 5, but
published version says for 7
Instruments:
see attached page
Song of
Quetzalcoatl
(1940)
Number of
Percussionists: 4
Born Mexico
City June 13, 1899
Died August 2,
1978
Composer,
conductor, teacher, writer, and government official
The government wanted to bring music to the masses with an emphasis on Indian cultures in the pre-conquest days. This started the Age of Cultural Nationalism in Mexico
His compositions
were far better received in America than in Europe
Lived in the US for several years where he made contacts with Copland, Cowell, and Varese
Director of
the first permanent symphony orchestra in Mexico
Active in the
pan American Association
Xochipilli (1940)
His crossover piece from traditional instrumental writing to purely percussion writing.
Instrumentation: various Aztec instruments with flute, piccolo, and clarinet
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two major works for percussion ensemble:
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Pgs. 11-15.
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1998. Pgs. 520-21.
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67-68.
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Group and their influence on percussion ensemble literature, performance, and
pedagogy. UMI Dissertation
Services. Ann Arbor, Michigan. 1987.
Pgs. 18-24.
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1980. Pgs. 340-41.
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1980. Pgs. 185-88.
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1980. Pgs. 8-12.
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Stanley. The New Grove Dictionary of
Music and Musicians. Vol. 16. Macmillan Publishers Limited. London.
1980. Pgs. 111-12.
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Tesla.CSUhayward.edu/history/early/_CowellIN.mus/Ray_Green.html
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www.essentialmusic.com/Beyer/beyersurvey.html
www.frogpeak.org/fpartists/fpbeyer.html
www.ncafe.com/chris/pat2/index.html
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www.schirmer.com/composers/antheil_bio.html
www.schirmer.com/composers/chavez_bio.html
www.schirmer.com/composers/cowell_bio.html
www.schirmer.com/repertoire/programming_machines.html#89
www.skidmore.edu/academics/english/courses/en205d/student4/proj2chavbio.html
www.uakron.edu/ssma/composers/Beyer.shtml