Percussion Ensemble: A Centennial Celebration

by George Hamilton Green (1893–1970)

Arranged by Bob Becker (b. 1947) for xylophone and marimba accompaniment (1990) Lucas Webster, xylophone soloist

George Hamilton Green was an acclaimed piano prodigy and xylophone virtuoso of the early 20th century. His “Triplets” was one of six novelty fox-trots published under the title of “George Hamilton Green’s Jazz Classics for the Xylophone.” This arrangement was completed in the 1970s by Bob Becker for NEXUS, one of the oldest professional percussion ensemble groups in North America. Becker sought to remain true to Green’s original publish version, only adding dynamics, slurs and accents for clarity. Our performance of this rag, complete with sound effects and timekeeping on the drum set, fully embodies the peppiness, frivolity, and syncopated styles of 1920s popular music.

Tonight’s performance will feature Western’s newly restored Deagan xylophone, originally constructed around 1913. We are immensely grateful for the Stamey Family for gifting this beautiful instrument to our department. Please enjoy their story on the xylophone below:

by Lou Harrison (1917–2003)

Lou Harrison was a modernist composer and musician who contributed significantly to the early development of the percussion ensemble genre. In the 1930s and 40s, Harrison worked as an accompanist for modern dance companies on the West Coast. Having taken a world music course with avant-garde composer Henry Cowell, Harrison developed a fascination with global sounds and timbres and sought to explore their potential in percussion works that could accompany modern dance productions. Because of Harrison’s affiliation with collegiate modern dance departments, spaces dominated by women at the time, most of Harrison’s percussion ensemble pieces were performed by female dancers or musicians who exhibited immense interest in percussion yet had no professional training. Canticle No. 1 is no exception: the piece was premiered at Mills College on July 18, 1940, by the Cage Percussion Players, a chamber group consisting of Harrison, John Cage, Xenia Cage (John’s wife and avant-garde painter), Margaret Jansen (a pianist from the Cornish School in Seattle), and Doris Dennison (a Cornish dancer who taught eurhythmics and rhythmic analysis courses). The work maintains a moderate tempo throughout and follows a simple formal structure, aptly demonstrating Harrison’s preference for timbral ingenuity and collaborative music-making over technical complexities. 

by Zita Carno (b. 1935)

Movements I and III

Zita Carno was a professional pianist and composer who was introduced to percussion in the late 1950s through Paul Price, a percussionist, pedagogue, and percussion ensemble director who established one of the first accredited percussion ensemble courses in the country at the Manhattan School of Music. At the time, Carno was pursuing a one-year master’s degree in piano performance but soon became heavily involved in the percussion program and decided to stay at Manhattan to pursue post-graduate work under Price. Although she was trained as a classical pianist, Price taught Carno how to play various percussion instruments and included her in many performances and recording sessions. In addition to performances, Price also encouraged Carno to compose pieces for his percussionists, resulting in her 1960 Sextet for Percussion, which would later be published in Price’s own publishing company, Music for Percussion, in 1970. The instrumentation of the Sextet features an equal array of pitched and non-pitched percussion instruments, reflecting Carno’s ability to combine what she learned from Price with what she already knew about keyboard instruments as a pianist. This work is a culmination of her percussion experiences in the late 50s and early 60s, uniting her classical interests with newer jazz-like ideas.

by Steve Reich (b. 1936)

Following the establishment of accredited percussion courses at institutions of higher education around midcentury, the first generation of professionally trained percussionists in the United States began to form professional chamber groups, compose and premiere a variety of new works, and explore percussive traditions from around the world. One of the most famous of these individuals is Steve Reich, who composed various works for percussion-dominant ensembles in the 1970s that featured phasing techniques, minimalist performance methods, and/or rhythmic sequences influenced by West African drumming genres and Indonesian gamelan traditions. In Clapping Music for two performers, an apt example of the composer’s aesthetic preferences at the time, simplifies the concept of phasing, instead relying on shifting eighth-note patterns to create layers of rhythmic complexity: one performer claps the same rhythm throughout the piece while the other shifts one eighth note over every 8 measures to create different patterns. Tonight’s performance will feature an even number of percussionists on both the unchanging and changing parts, coupled with choreography that serves to prepare the listener for each interlocking rhythmic sequence. 

by Casey McClure (b. 1970)

Directed by WWU Percussion Graduate Student Jonathan

Hold Fast is a large, conducted percussion ensemble work that exemplifies newer trends in the genre around the turn of the 21st century, particularly the increased use of keyboard percussion instruments to provide a greater sense of tonality through intricate melodic lines and chordal sequences. The title is a literal challenge to the listener to "hold fast" to the underlying rhythmic pulse established in the first sections of the work. This pulse is slowly usurped by changing meters and unequal divisions of the measures. Each section highlights different combinations of the wood and metal instruments while maintaining the integrity of the original melodic and rhythmic ideas.

by Libby Larsen (b. 1950)

DDT is the recipient of the John Beck Composition Prize for the 2014 Percussion Rochester at Greentopia Festival, with the generous support of the Goldberg Advised Fund of The Foundation of the Jewish Federation of Greater Rochester. It was premiered by NEXUS in 2014. The work demonstrates not only stylistic and aesthetic characteristics of contemporary percussion chamber works, but also the role music can play in the struggle for environmental justice. Larsen described her composition in the following manner:

by Dave Hall (b. 1983)

Pyroclastic Steam was commissioned by Russell Ratterree and the Wylie Percussion Ensemble for their showcase concert at the 2012 Percussive Arts Society International Convention. In tonight’s program, the piece serves to exemplify the most contemporary subgenre of percussion ensemble repertoire, the percussion orchestra, which is a large, keyboard-centric work for 8 or more players that is tonal, virtuosic, and aggressive. Hall wrote the following about the work: