Piece Percussionique No.1

Composer Name

General Info

Year: 1979
Duration: c. 8:00
Difficulty: (see Ratings for explanation)
Publisher: Canada
Cost: Score and Parts - $0.00 | Score Only - $0.00

Movements

Instrumentation

Player I - VI: triangle, anvil, suspended cymbals(2), bongos, snare drum, timpani(3), wood blocks, gongs(2), orchestra bells, maracas

Piano

Program Notes

Piece Percussionique No. 1 is the first in a projected series of percussion ensemble works. It was created around 1964 at a time when I had been attending numerous concerts by the Buffalo Philharmonic under Lukas Foss. His innovative programming often included new orchestral music often with interesting percussion parts. I had also recently discovered the interesting percussion writing in the music of Edgard Varèse. I liked the idea of a French sounding title, as per Varèse's Poème Électronique. Thus, my use of the term "percussionique" was a gesture of homage. However, the title merges the French-sounding percussionique with the English word "piece". Thus, pronunciation should reflect the two languages. I was once asked why I did not use the French "pièce" to agree with the term "percussionique". The only reason for this that I can recall is that I wanted to incorporate both English and French in the title. At the time, I was so taken with percussion music and its instruments that I knew I would be writing more "percussion pieces". So, I labelled this one as "No. 1". This work has undergone several revisions since its original inception. My original version was quite simplistic compared to the revision before the 1968 premiere and the 1979 revision, however those scores have been destroyed. Even in the 2007 computer-engraved edition, I could not resist some touching up and the addition of the one bar echo by the piano in bar 121. The instrumentation has remained more or less the same over the years.

This work is in one movement with various tempo shifts. The central rhythmic figure or theme is first stated by the triangle and snare drum in bars three and four. It is very beat oriented and has no real syncopation. A subsidiary motive is stated by the piano in bar 9. It first appears here as a quarter-note quintuplet. Later it occurs stretched into five full beats. It also becomes the basis of the complex five beats in the time of four beats section (bars 92-107) where it overlays with variants of the principal theme. Here the conductor is required to beat five in one hand against four in the other. Other than this passage which needs a bit of rehearsing, the rest of the work is moderately easy to perform.

Piece Percussionique No. 2, written shortly after, likely during the summer of 1964 or 1965, was destroyed as juvenalia. I do remember that it was for two percussionists using red and blue coloured pencils to indicate dynamics. The piece was incredibly naive and composed in such a way that amateurs could easily master it. My high school friend, Stephen Levinthal, and I made a tape of a homemade performance which was subsequently erased.^[1]

premiere: 12 December 1968. Baird Hall, SUNY, Buffalo, New York, University of Buffalo Percussion Ensemble, Edward Burnham, conductor

Errata

Awards

Commercial Discography

Recent Performances

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Works for Percussion by this Composer

Additional Resources

References

↑ http://www.horwoodcomposer.com/Chamber/PiecePercussioniqueNo1.htm

[1] ttp://www.horwoodcomposer.com/Chamber/PiecePercussioniqueNo1.htm

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