Three Movements for Percussion (Drewsen)

Mads Drewsen

General Info

Year of Published: 2022
Publisher: Edition Svitzer
Difficulty: Advanced
Duration: 00:15:00
Cost: €70.00

Instrumentation

Player 1: Glockenspiel & Castanets (3rd movement only)
Player 2: Vibraphone
Player 3: Xylophone
Player 4: Marimba
Player 5: 4 Timpani (G-C-D-E)
Player 6: Snare Drum
Player 7: Suspended Cymbal & Hand Cymbals
Player 8: Bass Drum
Player 9-11: Tambourine
Player 10: Triangle
Player 11: Woodblock

Description

Three Movements is written based on the idea that students at all levels can enjoy playing together. There are challenges on many levels, but also quite simple parts. Hopefully, this will benefit percussion ensembles at music school and conservatory preparatory levels. The idea is to further one’s experience so that one can advance to harder and more difficult parts. Three Movements can be played by six to eight musicians. The percussion parts (the unpitched) can either be gathered together on a kind of drum set or handed out to as many musicians. The musical style is strongly inspired by my own background and working day as a musician in an opera orchestra. Prokofiev, Shostakovich and Ravel have a big place in my heart and has inspired me through their tonal language (mostly in the second and third movements). The melodic style is a conscious choice to give, especially the very young, a motivation to learn the pieces and enjoy playing them.

Review

Commissioned by Edition Svitzer in collaboration with Odense Percussion and the Danish National Academy of Music, “Three Movements” is a 15-minute work that will present a professional-level challenge to keyboard percussion players and a moderate challenge to those playing the timpani and percussion parts. Mads Drewsen has scored the work in a manner similar to an orchestral percussion section, drawing comparison to the large ensemble works of Thomas Gauger. He states that inspiration for the work comes from his background working in an opera orchestra, and the music of Prokofiev, Shostakovich, and Ravel.

The first movement is perhaps the easiest, frequently shifting between slow and moderate tempos, and ending with a quick burst at 120 bpm in the final seven measures. The second movement begins with a soft and distant slow march from the percussion and counterpoint between the keyboard parts, before exploding into a quick 142 bpm, marked by sixteenth-note runs in melodic voices, which dominates most of the movement. The final movement begins as a spritely gallop at 152 bpm with a plethora of sixteenth-note figures in the keyboards and supportive writing in the timpani and percussion. A brief middle section offers a slight reprieve with a slower tempo and spacious rhythms, but this soon yields to an accelerando that culminates in a blisteringly fast final section.

The composer offers accommodations in assigning the parts. For example, the percussion part can be divided between multiple players, and the marimba part (the only instrument requiring four mallets) can be split between two players (assumingly treble and bass clef) in the first two movements. However, there is a passage that occurs at several places in the third movement, featuring sixteenth notes in the treble clef and a descending line in the bass clef, that would most certainly merit splitting the part. In addition to being very fast, the keyboard writing often features significant leaps that would require a mature player to navigate the appropriate sticking.

The non-pitched percussion scoring is rather straightforward, with figures playable by intermediate players in a student orchestra or wind ensemble. Despite its important role in supporting the ensemble, the timpani part consists of mostly quarter and eighth-note rhythms and does not change pitches, maintaining a G-C-D-E tuning throughout all three movements.

Due to its length, difficulty, and scoring, this could easily be considered a “percussion symphony.” While less-experienced groups are cautioned before taking this on, it is certainly not impossible, provided the appropriate players are enlisted. The live recording on the Edition Svitzer website proves this point.

—Jason Baker