The Modern Percussion Revolution: Journeys of the Progressive Artist

320 Pages·2014·2.544 MB·English

by  Kevin Lewis, Gustavo Aguilar

The Modern Percussion Revolution
“This book is profound, intellectual, insightful, appropriate for the times
and will fi ll a void between the practical and the futuristic look at percus-
sion. The information obtained from reading the book will greatly benefi t
the careers of the modern percussionists.”
—John Beck, Professor Emeritus of Percussion,
Eastman School of Music, University of Rochester, USA
More than eighty years have passed since Edgard Varèse’s catalytic work
for percussion ensemble, Ionisation, was heard in its New York premiere.
A fl urry of pieces for this new medium dawned soon after, challenging
the established truths and preferences of the European musical tradition
while setting the stage for percussion to become one of the most signifi cant
musical advances of the twentieth century. This ‘revolution’, as John Cage
termed it, was a quintessentially modernist movement—an exploration of
previously undiscovered sounds, forms, textures, and styles. However, as
percussion music has progressed and become woven into the fabric of West-
ern musical culture, several divergent paths, comprised of various tradi-
tions and a multiplicity of aesthetic sensibilities, have since emerged for the
percussionist to pursue.
This edited collection highlights the progressive developments that con-
tinue to investigate uncharted musical grounds. Using historical studies,
philosophical insights, analyses of performance practice, and anecdotal
refl ections authored by some of today’s most engaged performers, com-
posers, and scholars, this book aims to illuminate the unique destinations
found in the artistic journey of the modern percussionist.
Kevin Lewis is a Section Percussionist in the Akron Symphony Orchestra, a
founding member of the progressive Akros Percussion Collective, Chair of
the Percussive Arts Society’s Scholarly Research Committee, and Editor-in-
Chief of the forthcoming Percussive Notes Online Research Edition.
Gustavo Aguilar is Assistant Professor of Experimental Performance at the
University of Maine-Farmington, USA.
Routledge Research in Music
1 Music, Science, and the 7 Music in Films on the Middle
Rhythmic Brain Ages
Cultural and Clinical Implications Authenticity vs. Fantasy
Edited by Jonathan Berger John Haines
and Gabe Turow
8 Popular Music in a Digital Music
2 Bodily Expression in Electronic Economy
Music Problems and Practices for a
Perspectives on a Reclaimed Service Industry
Performativity Tim J. Anderson
Edited by Deniz Peters, Gerhard
Eckel, Andreas Dorschel 9 Music, Performance, and the
Realities of Film
3 Vocal Music and Contemporary Shared Concert Experiences in
Identities Screen Fiction
Unlimited Voices in East Asia and Ben Winters
the West
Edited by Christian Utz 10 The Modern Percussion
and Frederick Lau Revolution
Journeys of the Progressive Artist
4 Musical Performance and the Edited by Kevin Lewis
Changing City and Gustavo Aguilar
Post-industrial Contexts in Europe
and the United States
Edited by Fabian Holt
and Carsten Wergin
5 Liveness in Modern Music
Musicians, Technology, and the
Perception of Performance
Paul Sanden
6 Masculinity in Opera
Gender, History, and New
Musicology
Edited by Philip Purvis
The Modern Percussion
Revolution
Journeys of the Progressive Artist
Edited by Kevin Lewis
and Gustavo Aguilar
Routledge
Taylor & Francis Group
NEW YORK LONDON
First published 2014
by Routledge
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017
and by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group,
an informa business
© 2014 Taylor & Francis
The right of Kevin Lewis and Gustavo Aguilar to be identified as the
authors of the editorial material, and of the authors for their individual
chapters, has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the
Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or
utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now
known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in
any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing
from the publishers.
Trademark Notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or
registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation
without intent to infringe.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
The modern percussion revolution : journeys of the progressive artist /
edited by Kevin Lewis and Gustavo Aguilar.
pages cm. — (Routledge research in music)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Percussion music—20th century—History and criticism. I. Lewis,
Kevin, 1980– II. Aguilar, Gustavo, 1962–
ML1030.M64 2014
786.8—dc23
2014017564
ISBN13: 978-0-415-71695-6 (hbk)
ISBN13: 978-1-315-87170-7 (ebk)
Typeset in Sabon
by IBT Global.
Contents
List of Figures vii
Preface ix
PART I
Looking Back, Moving Ahead
1 Not Knowing, the Cart Got in Front 3
GUSTAVO AGUILAR
2 What of the Performers? The Case of the Percussion Group
Cincinnati and the Need to Reconsider Percussion Chamber
Music Historiography 18
THOMAS J. KERNAN
3 At Loose Ends with Anticommunication 38
ALLEN OTTE
4 Writing (at the End) of New Music 45
CHRISTOPHER SHULTIS
PART II
Exploration, Discovery, and Illumination
5 Abstracted Resonance: The Percussion Music of Peter Garland 61
JOHN LANE
6 The Speaking Percussionist as Storyteller 84
BONNIE WHITING
vi Contents
7 I Drum the Body Electric 112
ROBERT ESLER
8 The Search for Self: An Exploration of the Percussion Music of
Stuart Saunders Smith 133
KEVIN LEWIS
PART III
Conversing about the Journey
9 A Conversation with William Winant 163
THAD ANDERSON
10 Percussive Thoughts 172
FRITZ HAUSER
11 On the Nature of Percussion Masterworks 181
BILL SALLAK
PART IV
Refl ections on Paths Traveled
12 Meandering 201
STEVEN SCHICK
13 Bagatelles 215
ROBYN SCHULKOWSKY
14 Composing, Thoughts 224
STUART SAUNDERS SMITH
15 Letter to a Young Percussionist (Preferences in Percussion, 2010) 284
ALLEN OTTE
Contributors 295
Index 301
Figures
2.1 Russell Peck, The Glory and the Grandeur, excerpt from
p. 2 of the Otte manuscript [ca. 1987]. 28
2.2 Russell Peck, The Glory and the Grandeur. 30
2.3 John Luther Adams, Strange and Sacred Noise, excerpt from
the fi rst draft of “Velocities Crossing in Phase Space”
[ca. 1997]. 32
2.4 John Luther Adams, Strange and Sacred Noise, excerpt from
the second draft of “Velocities Crossing in Phase Space”
[ca. 1997]. 33
2.5 John Luther Adams, Strange and Sacred Noise. 33
3.1 Herbert Brün, Plot for Percussion. 39
3.2 Herbert Brün, Touch and Go, author’s performance score. 40
3.3 Herbert Brün, Floating Hierarchies, Quartet 12–1. 44
5.1 Quarter note series in “The Incorrigibles—Bounty Time”. 78
5.2 Suggested drum arrangement for Nana and Victorio. 79
6.1 Frederic Rzewski, To the Earth. 90
6.2 Jerome Kitzke, The Earth Only Endures, proposed
instrument confi guration. 93
6.3 Jerome Kitzke, The Earth Only Endures, author’s adapted
instrument confi guration. 94
6.4 Jerome Kitzke, The Earth Only Endures. 96
6.5 John Cage, 45' for a speaker. 99
6.6 John Cage/Bonnie Whiting, 51'15.657'' for a speaking
percussionist. 100
6.7 Vinko Globokar, ?Corporel. 103
6.8 Vinko Globokar, Toucher, Scene 2. 107
8.1 Stuart Saunders Smith, Big Falls, Little Falls, Mvt. II:
“Rocks and Mountains”. 142
8.2 Stuart Saunders Smith, By Language Embellished, I,
Mvt. III. 147
viii Figures
8.3 Stuart Saunders Smith, By Language Embellished, I,
Mvt. IV. 148
8.4 Stuart Saunders Smith, Return and Recall. 151
8.5 Stuart Saunders Smith, Family portraits: Delbert
(great-grandfather). 154
10.1 Fritz Hauser performing Drum with Man. 178
10.2 A performance of Fritz Hauser’s Schallmaschine Maximus. 180
Preface
“Percussion music is revolution”—so began John Cage’s 1939 essay “Goal:
New Music, New Dance.” ‘Revolution’ is an intense word, implying a vio-
lent overthrow of an established government or system; ‘schism’ might be a
better term to describe the movement in which Cage partook. But seman-
tic hair-splitting aside, it is now evident that the rise of percussion in the
twentieth century was a hugely signifi cant event in the history of Western
musical practice. The goal of this revolution—which collectively included
the contributions of not just Cage but also Luigi Russolo, Mary Wigman,
George Antheil, Amadeo Roldán, Edgard Varèse, Henry Cowell, Wil-
liam Russell, Johanna Beyer, Lou Harrison, Doris Humphrey, and many
others—was to escape the elitism that arose in European music, one that
seemed to revere the genius of the composer and the skills of the technical
virtuoso over music itself and one that shackled the creative expression
of the artist by denying any music that did not fi t the gradually-evolving
mold of the institution (indeed, those practicing within this tradition who
ventured to use percussion in novel ways—Rossini, Berlioz, Liszt, Saint-
Saëns, Mahler—received severe ridicule from critics). To rebel against the
hegemony of the establishment was thus to promote the tolerance of new
sounds, forms, ideas, and sonic discoveries and to denounce the prevailing
belief that musical expression must satisfy certain requirements if it is to be
considered valid as ‘serious’ art.
It was not long after Cage’s bold pronouncement that the cries of the
revolution began to be heard—percussion instruments became an accept-
able means of musical expression. The decade of the 1950s brought enor-
mous prospects: it became possible to earn a degree in percussion, fi rst at
the Conservatoire de Paris in 1949 and the University of Illinois in 1950
and at several other European and American universities soon after; cham-
ber ensemble works suddenly saw not just an explosion in the inclusion
of percussion but an acknowledgement of its unique utility in the roles
that it was assigned; and music for a brand-new type of performer—the
solo percussionist—soon emerged. But with this infl ux of opportunities
came great changes in percussion music and a number of new paths for
the percussionist to follow. Paul Price continued to perform the current