History of Percussion

The following essay analyze Corporel, one of Vinko Globokar's most representative
scores, shedding light on the main theoretical reflections connected to a compositional project so individualized in its relationship with sound and with the instrument.

With the growing awareness of 20th Century piano music in the international piano community in recent years, prepared piano has also become a very popular topic. This is because it adds psychedelic, wonderland-like revolutionary sound colors to the traditional piano sound. It is well known that the term "prepared piano" became popular as a result of the famous American modern composer John Cage's works, and many serious music lovers have come to believe that prepared piano is also the original creation of John Cage himself. However, such a conclusion is debatable. So how shall the inquiry begin? We should start by looking at the definition in Oxford Music Online for some clues: A piano in which the pitches, timbres, and dynamic responses of individual notes have been altered by means of bolts, screws, mutes, rubber erasers and/or other objects inserted at particular points between or placed on the strings. The idea originated with Cowell. The prepared piano was devised by Cage for his Bacchanale (1940), and used in a number of his subsequent compositions. From this we discover a clue. Perhaps the term was coined by John Cage to define the prepared piano performance technique. However, the original idea behind prepared piano was pioneered by another famous composer, Henry Cowell. This type of phenomenon is commonly seen among modern serious music composer communities such as with the famous Hungarian composer György Ligeti's Piano Etudes, Book I, No.3: Touches Bloquées. The innovative theory behind the performance technique of Touches Bloquées did not originate from Ligeti, but was from contemporary German composer Heining Siedentopf. Ligeti only put this theory to practice; applying it to the piano. The technical design of this etude is a unique reformation in piano technique. In simple terms, in regard to the method of piano performance, Ligeti requires the pianist's left hand to hold some keys without sounding, while the right hand moves above and beyond the region of the keys being pressed down by the left hand. The notes being held down do not sound and at rapid speed interesting rhythmic effects are created. Therefore, from the citation above and brief description of Touches Bloquées, we can see that the idea of prepared piano was not pioneered by John Cage and should more likely be attributed to Henry Cowell. In fact, Cage was inspired by Cowell's concept of a "string piano" in which a series of sounds could be embellished from the instrument by manipulating the strings directly instead of playing on the keyboard. Cowell's The Banshee (1925), for instance, required for the pianist to reach inside the piano and pluck and scrape the strings directly in order to achieve 1 2

Since its beginnings, the timpani has undergone several structural changes until reaching what we know today. Widely used in the 14th and 15th-century cavalry, the kettledrum gained admirers and attracted kings and queens' attention, gradually increasing their space within the musical environment. After a long period as a rudimentary instrument, the timpani was finally incorporated into the orchestra in the 17th century, the Baroque period. At first, with elementary functions, the timpani evolved over the years and attracted composers' attention, resulting in the development of their writing, technique, and, consequently, their performance. This paper aims to help the timpanist perform the Baroque repertoire closest to the correct style by an overview of the timpani's trajectory during the Baroque period, exploring its structure, function, and technique.

This article seeks to cast a critical eye on musical modernism through the experiences of its percussionist practitioners. It charts the origins and accepted truisms of percussion ontology as it is understood through the modernist sensibility, and demonstrates how certain modernist assumptions have been inherited by many contemporary practitioners. Some of these individuals' resulting expressions of grief, anger, and sadness in the wake of modernism's waning are presented, and a reparative reading of modernist percussion that seeks to make the repertory inhabitable and sustaining is instead offered. This practice is illustrated through a feminist and performer-led analysis of Karlheinz Stockhausen's Kontakte (1958-60), for piano, percussion, and tape. It is ultimately argued that performer knowledge and affective attachment is essential to understanding modernism's history and aesthetics, as well as its place in the contemporary moment.

Among Objects seeks to explore the concepts and structures of thought that underlie Western percussion ontology. As an artform, percussion is often understood as not being rooted to a material practice, but instead defined based on practitioners’ intentions and relationships to any number of materials, from conventional instruments to so-called “found sounds.” This dissertation, itself invested in the ethical dilemmas of the art form, seeks to complicate this understanding. I begin, through a phenomenological lens, by analyzing the structures of action and consciousness that make such an ontology possible. I then illustrate, through the concept of
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touch, the contingent bodily and material elements that support these structures and mediate this action: conditions that are often overlooked in accounts of the artform. I argue that the predominant ontology of action is shaped by certain orienting structures of power, and that percussion’s ontology must be understood based on the consequences of these orientations. I proceed to imagine and outline a metaphysics of percussion rooted not in subjective action but in a form of inter-objective self-interpretation. Within this framework, the percussive work or event creates a more complex object of which the human is just one component part, rather than master or sovereign. The dissertation closes with a discussion of how, given this alternative metaphysics, the relationship of percussion to violence takes on a different form: no longer something that one commits only by choice, but something that is immanent to the embodied, material, and cultural practices of the artform. Given this understanding, I argue for an embodied, object-oriented ethics to help create and maintain a more habitable percussive world.

Universalism and Fragmentation in Percussion Practice is an examination of the formation of percussion repertoire and practice within Western Art Music. Through historical analysis, cultural anthropology, and autobiographical ethnography, I seek to explore the relationships between percussion, liberal universalism, postmodernism, and neoliberalism. I argue that percussion practice has developed in line with the Enlightenment-values that have driven the development of Western culture, despite its typical claims to revolutionary origins and percussion’s historical portrayal as Other. I also argue that this universalism as it manifests in percussion has been comfortably married to capitalist production and neoliberal values. I ultimately arrive at a deconstruction of the universal as it pertains to the intercultural dialogues at play within percussion, and propose an alternative model to universalism in the form of fragmentation driven by lived lives and non-teleological aesthetic judgments.

This article examines the theatrical use of the digital voice and hyper-instruments in a sound-led interdisciplinary performance, taking as its basis a work that has emerged from a practice-based research project, Zaum: Beyond Mind for voice, instruments, live/interactive electronics, film, choreography and lighting, a collaboration between myself and electronics composer Oded Ben-Tal (Kingston University). It will examine how digital audio technology has become a fundamental element in this genre, both in creating virtual sound-characters and in determining augmented perceptions of time-space, thus extending the aural and visual parameters of events happening onstage.

Notation of Western music is incompatible with the musical idiom of untuned percussion, effectively muting its voice.
The music of the over 100 instruments in the untuned medium is expressed through a complex relationship between instrumental characteristics, type of beater used and manner of playing. Notating this mode of musical expression requires a system specific to the characteristic of the medium.
So, by ordering the instruments into four conceptual typologies of Membranophones, Metal idiophones, Wooden idiophones and ‘Frictophones’, based on both the materials of their construction, and methods of playing I constructed a new notation system. It comprises integrated noteheads of shapes that clearly show instrument type, area of stroke and details of beater. In addition, articulation markings expand the scope of manner of playing.
This provides the first step in standardising the method of notating playing directions in a manner that is convenient to input and easy to read.

This report describes continuaMENTE, an interactive audiovisual piece composed for tape, texts, video, interactive percussion and live electronics. It was commissioned by the Itaú Cultural Foundation, São Paulo and created at the Interdisciplinary Nucleus for Sound Studies (NICS), Unicamp, Brazil. First performed on August 2007 in the exposition "Memória do Futuro" (Memory of the Future), continuaMENTE integrated several materials with real-time sounds and music's gestures produced by three percussionists. The use of three interfaces: interactive mallets, gloves and a carpet, and the musicians´ actions generated complex sound textures on a MIDI controlled piano. This report describes the conceptual view, used resources, sonic strategies and graphic notation, and the performance rules related to this work.

These three dissertation recitals were presented in partial fulfillment of the requirement for the Doctor of Musical Arts (Music Performance: Percussion) at the University of Michigan. They were given in lieu of a written dissertation. The work below represents the programming and research from the recitals. The first lecture recital, The Coexistence of Two Worlds: The Evolution of Rudimental and Concert Snare Drumming in the United States Through its History and Literature from the 18th Century to Present, was presented on October 17, 2021, in the Morris R. Pitman Recital Hall at the University of Oklahoma. It featured historical information detailing the functional and musical evolution of both the rudimental and concert styles of snare drumming. The lecture was supported by performances of various solos from both musical styles. The second recital, Mirrors, was presented on January 10, 2022, in the Hankinson Rehearsal Hall at the University of Michigan. The program consisted of duets highlighting the principle of reflection demonstrated in the physical setups of each piece, either being identical or shared. A wide variety of instrumentations were utilized ranging from keyboards to drums to guitar. The third recital, Well Behaved Women Seldom Make History, was presented on April 16, 2022, in the McIntosh Theatre at the University of Michigan. The program consisted of the world premieres of works dedicated to four female percussionists whose careers helped shape the field into what it is today. These solos were written by female composers Jennifer Jolley, Molly Joyce, Shruthi Rajasekar, and Juri Seo. The recital was a reflection on the growing need for equity within the percussion community and the field of music as a whole.

NuMuzArt grew from a small seed planted in my brain over the summer of 2014, when I attended a few summer composition programs to experience and learn more about my compositional craft. While at the Charlotte Music Festival, I participated in a conversation about the sterile nature of music recitals in the academic and concert music world. This conversation stuck with me and became a no-brainer subject for my honors thesis. I would research the concert music world and construct an alternative which would solve a few of my personal vendettas against the standard recital format, while retaining a "serious about music" quality, that is to say, keeping the event something that those readily immersed in the fine arts atmosphere could still appreciate. My aspiration to create a new concert experience is in line with several past and present composers. In fact, several composers share my concern with a disinterested audience separated by physical space from a performing ensemble. In an essay by Claude Debussy, written in 1901, titled "Conversation with M. Croche," Debussy comments, through a conversation with his alter ego, about the "hostility in the concert room audience" (Simms 6). He discusses the expressions of "drugged boredom [and] indifference" found rampant in the audience. Debussy goes on to talk about how a real intake of beauty rarely results in applause, as is so forced in the concert hall (Simms 6).There are a socially constructed set of behaviors in the public concert that are not conducive to drawing in new audiences. If that were not the case, I believe concert halls would consistently be packed with eager symphony aficionados. Elliot Schwartz and Daniel Godfrey have pinpointed exactly this issue in the current concert format: it is "replete with axioms and assumptions that, [for composers], are too confining artistically… For most concert goers, it goes without saying that music is performed on a stage or in some other space

To the best of my knowledge and belief, this thesis contains no material previously published or written by another person, except where due reference has been made. jfoJroJM. % 0o J r N. Grant Musick and Poetry have ever been acknowledg'd Sisters, which walking hand in hand, support each other; As Poetry is the harmony of Words, so Musick is that of notes; and as Poetry is a Rise above Prose and Oratory, so is Musick the exaltation of Poetry. Both of them may excel apart, but sure they are most excellent when they arejoyn'd, because nothing is then wanting to either of their Perfections for thus they appear like Wit and Beauty in the same Person. 1

closing admiration for many works but also admitting that, in some cases, Cage's efforts fell short. The "number pieces" of Cage's late career are, according to Haskins, "among his greatest" (p.126), and of those, he points to Two 2 as "one of the greatest" examples (p.142). (Haskins knows Two 2 well; hear his beautiful recording of it with Laurel Karlick Sheehan on Mode 193.) But Cage did not always attain sublimity, and Haskins acknowledges this with reasoned but to-the-point critiques and observations. Most striking is a broad statement in the biography's last pages, where Haskins credits "the singularity and brilliance" of many of Cage's ideas but concedes that "Cage's work and aesthetic after 1950 had limitations" (p.153). While Cage went further and further in his pursuit of new sounds and new ways of conceiving music, he removed personal expression, intuition, and customs as much as possible from his composing and from the experience of performers. As a consequence of this detachment, "Cage's work has not supported the development of a truly new and humanistic art," Haskins asserts (p.154). Nevertheless, the book concludes optimistically, in the spirit of Cage, by urging that, even if the music has not yet inspired the subjective and selfless society Cage envisioned, it still could. The absence of an index is the only fault to mention, and this sole shortcoming detracts little from what the book accomplishes. Though mainly an introductory guide ideal for anyone just beginning to discover Cage, this biography also puts forward critical positions and insights that suggest new ways of appraising Cage's works, their value, and their implications. Reviewed by D.J. Hoek

In our editors' note to this special issue of Dance Research Journal, we invoke the spirit of a person whom we have encountered as Betty Baaron Samoa in the archival records, yet we do not know if this was the name she would like to be invoked by. Her likeness has been with us, but we did not notice her for a long time. She appears in a series of photographs of Rudolf Laban's dance workshops on the Monte Verità, Ascona. Laban had commissioned the photographer Johann Adam Meisenbach to document his early experiments in free dance in the summer of 1914, shortly before the outbreak of a war that would change the face of Europe. There she is, sometimes eerily smiling at us, sometimes coyly looking away, alone or with others, dressed and in the nude, framed by the mountains and trees of the Ticino region. Betty Baaron Samoa has always been with us. Laban scholars noticed her, but did not write her into their research. We encountered her many times in Meisenbach's pictures, for instance in the second edition of Hans Brandenburg's seminal volume Der Moderne Tanz (Modern Dance) whose appendix of black-and-white photographs constitutes the core visual repository of early dance modernism in Germany. She appears in the second edition of this volume (ca. 1917), but not in the third edition that was published in 1921. 1 The black-and-white reproductions hardly distinguish the tone of her skin from that of the other dancers (see photo 1). This changed when new color prints of the original autochrome plates started to circulate after the death of Laban associate Suzanne Perrottet, whose estate was donated to Kunsthaus Zürich (Schwab 2003; Prange 2014) (see cover image). Betty Baaron Samoa was a woman of color. Who was Betty Baaron Samoa? When working on this editors' note, we were wondering whether we had missed information. There are some traces of her. However, the few instances in which her name is mentioned barely constitute viable archival material, especially compared to the extensive holdings on many of Laban's other collaborators. Her last name, "Samoa," as it is listed in the catalog of Kunsthaus Zürich, carries an uncanny reference to German colonial history: from 1900 to 1919, German-Samoa or Deutsch-Samoa was a German protectorate under the reign of Emperor Wilhelm II. Thus we refer to her as Betty, as we would have liked to call her. The picture that we have chosen for the cover shows Betty hand in hand with Katja Wulff and a dancer who went by the name of "Totimo," standing in a circular formation typical of Laban-style early modern dance and its community-building aspirations, with Betty's body in contrapposto, her face in the shadow. Three interwoven bodies, more than a couple but not quite a group, are closely related by touch and movement-a queer bunch, maybe not so far from the nearly contemporaneous "representation of non-normative sexual acts" (Järvinen 2009, 202) that Vaclav Nijinsky put on stage in Jeux (1913). They are an assemblage of apprentices in front of the "pedagogical landscape" (Agentur für geistige Gastarbeit 1980, 5) of the Lago Maggiore and its surrounding mountains, where life was going to be reformed in all aspects, including sexuality. 2 Dance was but one of the few practices aimed at reconciling the body with its environment, propped up by concepts such as nature or the natural at the center of the ideology of life reform.

This paper provides an outline of the collaborative approach taken in the creation of electroacoustic percussion work Kinabuhi | Kamatayon (2015) by Stuart James for performance by Louise Devenish. Written for eleven Indonesian bossed gongs and electronics, the work involved creative and systematic exploration of various percussive and electronic techniques with the primary aim of recontextualising these instruments. This paper offers an overview of the collaboration process with percussionist Louise Devenish and how these techniques were used in the work. This includes discussion of the performance practices developed and a suitable notation system for effectively executing these compositional ideas.

Over the past two decades significant changes in approaches to gender equity have taken place in the fields of contemporary music and music research. However, women in music are still disadvantaged in terms of income, inclusion and professional opportunities. In Australia a national approach to improving gender equity in music has begun to emerge as once-controversial strategies trialled by four tertiary institutions have become established practices. This article discusses successful inclusion strategies for women in music, including the commitment to gender-balanced programming across all concerts at Queensland Conservatorium of Music by 2025, the introduction of mandatory quotas in recital programmes at Monash University, mentoring programmes for women composers at Sydney Conservatorium of Music, and the development of coursework devoted to women in music at The University of Western Australia, as well as other initiatives that have emerged from them, both within and beyond the i...

Mainland Chinese society heavily stigmatizes nonnormative sexuality, and the government imposes strict censorship on media representations of homosexuality. It seems improbable that choreographer Hu Shenyuan, whose dances do not hide homosexual themes, would be so successful as a performer and artist in the Chinese context, which signifies a tension between state control and audience demand. This article reads Hu's choreography and its reception as queer texts. While queer identities might seem virtually invisible and unspeakable in China, I argue that Hu's choreography makes visible a culturally unrepresentable queerness and incubates collective reflection about nonnormative identities.

This article aims to carry out an analytical study to inform the performance of Samuel Robles’ Tian-Ho, for solo percussion. For this, the discussion is divided into three sections: The first investigates  the  biographical  profile  of  Robles  to  determine  the  conditions  that  led  him  to  compose for percussion. The second analyzes the musical and non-musical influences that inspired Tian-Ho's composition. Finally, the text is related to timbre and texture to understand how Robles generates thematic material on percussion instruments.

As the role of the percussionist has evolved throughout the past century, a new genre of one performer playing multiple percussion instruments has evolved, most commonly known as "multi-percussion." Undergraduate percussion programs have struggled to keep up with the increasing demand for students to perform solo multipercussion repertoire. This study first evaluates the role of multi-percussion in the curriculum with a historical overview and a survey of current practices. It then explores the possibilities for integrating multi-percussion into the undergraduate percussion curriculum by providing a repertoire guide and a four-year course of study for undergraduate students.

In our editors' note to this special issue of Dance Research Journal, we invoke the spirit of a person whom we have encountered as Betty Baaron Samoa in the archival records, yet we do not know if this was the name she would like to be invoked by. Her likeness has been with us, but we did not notice her for a long time. She appears in a series of photographs of Rudolf Laban's dance workshops on the Monte Verità, Ascona. Laban had commissioned the photographer Johann Adam Meisenbach to document his early experiments in free dance in the summer of 1914, shortly before the outbreak of a war that would change the face of Europe. There she is, sometimes eerily smiling at us, sometimes coyly looking away, alone or with others, dressed and in the nude, framed by the mountains and trees of the Ticino region. Betty Baaron Samoa has always been with us. Laban scholars noticed her, but did not write her into their research. We encountered her many times in Meisenbach's pictures, for instance in the second edition of Hans Brandenburg's seminal volume Der Moderne Tanz (Modern Dance) whose appendix of black-and-white photographs constitutes the core visual repository of early dance modernism in Germany. She appears in the second edition of this volume (ca. 1917), but not in the third edition that was published in 1921. 1 The black-and-white reproductions hardly distinguish the tone of her skin from that of the other dancers (see photo 1). This changed when new color prints of the original autochrome plates started to circulate after the death of Laban associate Suzanne Perrottet, whose estate was donated to Kunsthaus Zürich (Schwab 2003; Prange 2014) (see cover image). Betty Baaron Samoa was a woman of color. Who was Betty Baaron Samoa? When working on this editors' note, we were wondering whether we had missed information. There are some traces of her. However, the few instances in which her name is mentioned barely constitute viable archival material, especially compared to the extensive holdings on many of Laban's other collaborators. Her last name, "Samoa," as it is listed in the catalog of Kunsthaus Zürich, carries an uncanny reference to German colonial history: from 1900 to 1919, German-Samoa or Deutsch-Samoa was a German protectorate under the reign of Emperor Wilhelm II. Thus we refer to her as Betty, as we would have liked to call her. The picture that we have chosen for the cover shows Betty hand in hand with Katja Wulff and a dancer who went by the name of "Totimo," standing in a circular formation typical of Laban-style early modern dance and its community-building aspirations, with Betty's body in contrapposto, her face in the shadow. Three interwoven bodies, more than a couple but not quite a group, are closely related by touch and movement-a queer bunch, maybe not so far from the nearly contemporaneous "representation of non-normative sexual acts" (Järvinen 2009, 202) that Vaclav Nijinsky put on stage in Jeux (1913). They are an assemblage of apprentices in front of the "pedagogical landscape" (Agentur für geistige Gastarbeit 1980, 5) of the Lago Maggiore and its surrounding mountains, where life was going to be reformed in all aspects, including sexuality. 2 Dance was but one of the few practices aimed at reconciling the body with its environment, propped up by concepts such as nature or the natural at the center of the ideology of life reform.

The drum kit is a musical instrument comprising various items of percussion. It is ubiquitous in popular music (the majority of music produced and consumed by contemporary society) but is largely excluded as a requirement in the collegiate percussion studio. The authors contextualize this phenomenon in the wider cultural disparity between music in society (99% rock, pop, hip- hop and other contemporary styles) and music in higher education (almost exclusively Western art music and jazz). We ask the following four research questions: (1) How frequently is drum kit taught in the collegiate percussion studio, relative to other percussion instruments? (2) If drum kit is taught, what topics are taught? (3) If the participants play drum kit themselves, how did they learn? (4) What opportunities and/or challenges exist for drum kit instruction in the percussion studio? Fifty collegiate percussion instructors completed an online survey. Participants agreed that drum kit is important for music-making and teaching after leaving college, but for most, drum kit takes a backseat to snare drum, timpani, and marimba as foundational instruments of Western art music. We argue that including drum kit in the collegiate studio would require a shift in pedagogy and aesthetic orientation, but that such shifts are necessary in order for the collegiate percussion studio to remain relevant. Further research is required to understand how the percussion studio and higher music education more broadly can better serve students and society, including in music teacher education and in kindergarten through 12th grade schools. This article’s exploration of drum kit and percussion underscores the importance of discussing the places and purposes of myriad musics and musicians throughout music education contexts.

This thesis was submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy and awarded by Brunel University LondonThis research explores the integration of tuned percussion into the rock band framework with the emphasis on creating innovative approaches as a composer and performer. The portfolio of audio/ video recordings, scores and commentary will explore; 1) The roles of the rock drummer and percussionist 2) New composition and performance techniques for percussion within rock 3) Challenging the identity of rock music This portfolio is a combination of several smaller practical projects designed around the parameters of; - Ensemble size - Instrumentation - Tuned vs untuned percussion It has been undertaken by a practitioner who works across the disciplines of rock drumming, orchestral percussion and free improvisation. As such, it places them in an unusual, interesting and unique position whereby elements of each framework blend and permeate into one another, both on conscious and subconsc...

This paper provides an outline of the collaborative approach taken in the creation of electroacoustic percussion work Kinabuhi | Kamatayon (2015) by Stuart James for performance by Louise Devenish. Written for eleven Indonesian bossed gongs and electronics, the work involved creative and systematic exploration of various percussive and electronic techniques with the primary aim of recontextualising these instruments. This paper offers an overview of the collaboration process with percussionist Louise Devenish and how these techniques were used in the work. This includes discussion of the performance practices developed and a suitable notation system for effectively executing these compositional ideas.

This study focuses on elements of design and execution in Minimalism, notwithstanding the perceptiveness and receptiveness in trends such as Phase-Shifting Process; thus mostly experienced as a mechanical repetition-sort of a multiplication of a very restricted, limited, sometimes even monotonous material. This material and supportive arguments also serve to pedagogical aims to a great extend-while percussion playing is mostly regarded as a mechanical idiom-at least in initial levels, repertoires as such might be handled as bridging tools, especially in introducing contemporary music and respective techniques. Thus, this study aims to be an introductory contribution to performance practices as a byproduct, whereas its limited volume regarding the theoretical scope should only be seen as a very brief survey to the idioms subject to be elaborated.

Bu araştırmanın amacı; hız ve hareket fetişizmi üzerinden, çeşitli sanat akımlarının, nasıl bir yol izledikleri; zamanın koşullarına göre ne tür bir zorunlulukla, ya da tam tersi bir istekle bu hamleyi benimsedikleri, çok detaya girilmeden kısaca anlatılmaya çalışılmıştır.

Fütürizm Manifestosu üzerinden toparlanmaya çalışılan hız, şiddet ve gürültü estetiği, Intonarumori (gürültü makineleri) dağarcığı göz önünde bulundurularak müzikteki yansımalarından kısaca bahsedilmeye çalışılmıştır. Tez süreci boyunca başta George Antheil olmak üzere, Terry Riley, La Monte Young, Steve Reich ve Philip Glass gibi bestecilerin başlıca yapıtları incelenerek birbirleriyle ve icra pratikleriyle bağları irdelenmeye çalışılmıştır.

Son derece daraltılmış; yalınkat bir malzemeden çoğaltılarak “Az çoktur ve şeytan ayrıntıda gizlidir” sözüyle bağlamlanan mekanik tekrara dayalı tasarımsal ve performatif öğeler, Phase-Shifting Process algısıyla Minimalizm bağlamında derinleştirilmeye çalışılmıştır.

Bu bestecilerin önünü açmaları ve başka kültürlerin müziklerine daha derinlikli birer perspektifle yaklaşmaları açısından Henry Cowell ve 20. yy müziğinin en önemli fikir adamlarından biri olan John Cage’in bağlama dair başat görüşleri nakledilmiştir.
Çalışmanın özellikle perküsyon icracılarına, pratiklerini zihinselleştirmede destek olması amaçlanmıştır.

Anahtar Kelimeler: Motorik, Repetitif, Döngüsellik, Zihin-Kas Kordinasyonu, Bağımsız Hareket Ergonomisi, Post-Modernizm

Percussion music is both the oldest and most recent of musical genres and exists in diverse forms throughout the world. This Companion explores percussion and rhythm from the perspectives of performers, composers, conductors, instrument builders, scholars, and cognitive scientists. Topics covered include percussion in symphony orchestras from the nineteenth century to today and the development of percussion instruments in chapters on the marimba revolution, the percussion industry, drum machines, and the effect of acoustics. The chapters also investigate drum set playing and the influences of world music on Western percussion, and outline the roles of percussionists as composers, conductors, soloists, chamber musicians, and theatrical performers. Developments in scientific research are explored in chapters on the perception of sound and the evolution of musical rhythm. This book will be a valuable resource for students, percussionists, and all those who want a deeper understanding of percussion music and rhythm. russell hartenberger is Professor at the University of Toronto and has been a member of both Nexus and Steve Reich and Musicians since 1971. With Nexus, he created the sound track for the Academy Award-winning Documentary Feature The Man Who Skied Down Everest. With Steve Reich and Musicians he has recorded for ECM, DGG, and Nonesuch Records and performed on the Grammy Award-winning recording of Music for 18 Musicians. His awards include the Toronto Arts Award, Banff Centre for the Arts National Award, a Juno nomination, and induction into the Percussive Arts Society Hall of Fame.

Artistic research researches the creative process resulting into an art work. It shares the aim of any scientific research, contributing to accumulation of knowledge in a given field, though it frees a researcher from excessive formalities (such as obligatory research outcomes stated in a written form – this function could be taken over by a piece of art), building the knowledge upon the practice. The notion of artistic research is a relatively new one. However, it has already been implemented at the academic level in several countries. Artistic research has never been conducted in the Republic of Georgia. Though, Tbilisi State Conservatoire offers to performers and composers’ special doctoral programs that give doctoral students opportunities to examine issues related to performance and composition practice, based on theoretical and practical knowledge. The dissertations written in the framework of the programs to some extent relate to artistic research, though, they differ from ar...

Developments in percussion performance practices, pedagogy, and industry are recognised as some of the major advancements to have taken place in western art music in the last century. Taking the composition dates of landmark percussion ensemble works Ritmicas No. 5 and No. 6 by Amadeo Roldán (1930) and Ionisation by Edgard Varèse (1929-31) as a point of departure, there are now nine decades of creative activity in this field. Although 'the relatively short history of contemporary percussion music has forced percussionists to include research in their daily routines, in order to invent and master new instruments, and to accelerate their technical development' (Huang, 2015), scholarly literature focussed on this creative research have not emerged in parallel. To date, publications focussed on percussion have been largely been confined to journal articles and dissertations. The Cambridge Companion to Percussion is one of a handful of recent book publications including The Percussionist's Art: Same Bed, Different Dreams (Schick 2006) and The Modern Percussion Revolution: Journeys of the Progressive Artist (Lewis & Aguilar 2014) that begin to address a gap in the literature, and is a must-have for academic and personal libraries internationally. Russell Hartenberger, editor and author of two chapters in The Cambridge Companion to Percussion, states that he hopes that this collection of essays is 'representative of the growing significance of percussion in Western music' (p. 3), which this volume achieves. The Cambridge Companion to Percussion offers twenty-one essays that address a variety of percussive concerns, organised into seven chapters titled as follows: Orchestral percussion, The development of percussion instruments, Percussion in performance, Composing music for percussion instruments, Drum sets and drumming, World Percussion, and Percussion and rhythm. Commencing with an essay on historic timpani traditions, the range of topics examined spans centuries of percussion practices, however an emphasis is placed on examining developments in the twentieth century including the roots of electronic percussion, the rise of the marimba in western art music, the impact of percussion instrument design and building on performance, conducting, acoustics and the influence of world music traditions on the contemporary percussionist.

This performance-based study for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at the Elder Conservatorium of Music, University of Adelaide challenges percussion concert conventions. It posits that thematically focused performances integrating all elements of concert presentation and execution and audience involvement can deepen the music experience. The hypothesis was tested by performing and videoing four styles of thematic concerts. The performances narrated a story in unaccompanied solos, elucidated an environment through chamber music, discussed a percussion ensemble presentation, and depicted life in accompanied solos. New and unusual compositions and techniques were introduced suggesting a new path for percussion performance.

In un'epoca segnata da un'estrema volontà di rottura dei linguaggi artistici tradizionali e dalla contestuale esplorazione di nuove modalità espressive - si pensi all'atonalismo espressionista o al metodo dodecafonico - l'opera di Bartók segue una strada divergente, trasformando sistematicamente elementi e stilemi popolari in forme universali. In questa prospettiva, la «Sonata per due pianoforti e percussioni» si mostra come uno dei più alti esempi di quella incredibile dote creativa che unisce la tradizione con l'innovazione e l'originalità. Di quest'opera il presente volume presenta una specifica e puntuale analisi musicologica. La scelta dell'organico è già di per sé una dichiarazione musicale: il pianoforte, strumento classico e romantico per eccellenza, viene accostato alle «neonate» percussioni, le quali gradualmente si affermeranno come una delle famiglie strumentali più indagate dai compositori del XX sec. Componendo per due pianoforti e per un set percussivo che comprende una quindi quindicina di strumenti, Bartók amplifica enormemente il potenziale timbrico, dinamico ed espressivo dell'opera offrendo un'inedita varietà di soluzioni musicali.

This research study identifies techniques of creating and releasing musical tension in audio-visual performance media, specifically within the marching arts. A successful composition in this medium is defined, in part, by the coordination of effects between pitched musical elements, non-pitched (percussive) musical elements, and movement (choreographed) elements. Such compositions create a concert performance situation in which there is aesthetic gratification and a sense of sophistication in which aural stimuli interact in congruence and in conjunction with visual stimuli. By identifying the creative practice through conversation with practitioners, designers, choreographers, and composers, the common practices of the genre can be identified to better inform future design and composition endeavors. This will benefit not only the marching arts but also those directors and musicians who wish to create enhanced, audio-visual performances in any setting.

What do you call people who hang around musicians?

Drummers.

The music world is full of jokes about drummers, insinuating that the art form is less sophisticated than others. Then, you have the term ‘percussion’, which poses an enigma to those who have not been acquainted with the family of instruments. It’s time to turn the stereotype on its head and discover the diverse range of instruments and the high level of musicality to be learned through percussion tuition.

The xylophone, timpani (kettle drums), snare drum and marimba are just some of the instruments that make up the orchestral percussion family. With a small xylophone and a rubber drum pad for practice, one can start to learn all of the skills necessary to play this wonderful array of instruments.

Since receiving my bachelor of music in percussion performance at the Sydney Conservatorium, I have travelled Europe and the USA learning from the world’s most distinguished percussionists. They have taught me musicianship, technique and teaching methods. I returned to Australia to complete my Masters in percussion and am using this wealth of knowledge to develop accomplished musicians in the field of percussion. As an AMEB examiner, I am passionate about seeing children experience the exciting world of percussion and all of the challenges and rewards it brings.

A lo largo de la historia del repertorio para percusión hubo un fuerte crecimiento técnico acompañado por la creación de nuevos instrumentos pertenecientes a este área. Esto determinó la conformación de un nuevo profesional volviéndolo un músico multitarea:  un músico que no estudia un único instrumento musical y al cual no se le pide una sola forma de tocar estos instrumentos. El repertorio que refleja mejor este concepto es lo de la multipercusión. A pesar que sea un repertorio joven -en el 1919 se presenta la Histoire du Soldat de Igor Stravinsky, primera composición para multipercusión en ámbito orquestal, y solo en el 1959 Karlheinz Stockhausen compone Zyklus que resulta ser la primera obra para multipercusión sola- las problemáticas que lo han caracterizado siempre fueron varias: una notación constantemente diferente según la obra, la organización espacial de los instrumentos que componen el conjunto pedido por el compositor, la orquestación (elección y/o construcción de instrumentos musicales), el desarrollo de competencias peculiares comúnmente no pertenecientes a los planes de estudios académicos.

Los propósitos esta investigación son: 1) dar un panorama claro de como nació y se desarrolló históricamente el concepto de multipercusión; 2) escoger e interpretar obras donde sean fuertemente marcadas las problemáticas descritas con especial y peculiar atención a obras que presenten el conocimiento de habilidades particulares; 3) escribir los métodos de estudios utilizados y ejercicios técnicos para la resolución de las problemáticas encontradas; 4) plantear una reflexión sobre lo que se puede considerar multipercusión e intentar responder a la pregunta ¿se puede considerar la multipercusión un instrumento musical mutable?

Los resultados obtenidos hasta ahora se centran principalmente en el aspecto histórico de la evolución practica del concepto de multipercusión y en la selección, estudio e interpretación de composiciones donde la idea de un desarrollo de habilidades singulares sea bien marcado.

The marimba is the (“traditional”) instrument par excellence in the Mexican state of Chiapas. Its current practices nowadays may range between participative and presentative performances, while its repertoire drifts between popular genres, such as música ranchera and bolero, along with contemporary music and jazz. Its roots and representativeness are such that it would give the impression of being omnipresent in the soundscape of the state. Nonetheless, there are two different kinds of marimba in Chiapas: on the one hand, the marimba doble –chromatic–, which is widely visible and, no doubt, the cultural symbol of the state; and, on the other hand, the marimba sencilla –diatonic–, whose status and visibility are almost non-existent. Whereas the marimba doble has found a niche within ethnomusicology research, the marimba sencilla has been utterly ignored, having been at times even considered to be extinct in the state. Notwithstanding, it continues to be not only present inside the state, but also an essential part of the identity of several social groups. This research focuses on such diatonic marimba tradition. Based on the information gathered during several research stays in the area, it attempts to offer a general scope of the dissemination and functioning, as well as of the various sociocultural interrelations of this musical tradition in the state of Chiapas. At the same time, being the first scientific research that is focused exclusively on this musical tradition, it aims to offer some groundwork for the development of future research which grant access to a deeper understanding of this musical tradition.

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La marimba es el instrumento (“tradicional”) por excelencia en el estado mexicano de Chiapas. Sus prácticas actuales pueden oscilar entre performances participativos y presentacionales, al tiempo que su repertorio navega entre géneros populares, como música ranchera y bolero, y la música contemporánea, así como el jazz. Su arraigo y representatividad son tales que diera la impresión de ser omnipresente en el paisaje sonoro chiapaneco. En Chiapas existen, sin embargo, dos tipos de marimba: por un lado, la marimba doble –cromática–, la cual goza de una amplia visibilidad y es sin duda el símbolo cultural del estado. Y por el otro la marimba sencilla –diatónica–; esta última con un status y una visibilidad casi nulos. Si bien, la marimba doble ha encontrado un lugar en la investigación etnomusicológica, la marimba sencilla ha sido ignorada por completo, siendo en ocasiones considerada extinta en este estado. Sin embargo, esta sigue, no solo estando presente en el estado, sino que también sigue siendo una parte primordial de la identidad de diversos grupos sociales. El siguiente trabajo se encuentra enfocado a esta tradición marimbística diatónica. Basado en la información recabada durante diversas estancias de investigación en la zona, se busca dar una visión general de la diseminación y el funcionamiento, así como de las diversas interrelaciones socioculturales de esta tradición musical en el estado de Chiapas. Al mismo tiempo, al ser este el primer estudio científico enfocado exclusivamente a esta tradición musical, se busca sentar las bases para el desarrollo de futuras investigaciones que nos permitan acceder a un entendimiento profundo de esta tradición musical.