Halloween, 2008

We have finished another Halloween concert at the University of Chicago Symphony Orchestra. The selection of music wasn't quite on my list of the "Top 100 Scary (but interesting) Favorite Halloween Pieces", but Malcolm Arnold's Tam O'Shanter Overture certainly had enough work to pacify me. I've also surrendered to the beginning of the Infernal Dance from Stravinsky's Firebird suite and I swear to never question the logic of (1) using mutes on the "A" in the opening measures, and (2) playing the accented flams on a separate drum.

If you'd like to take a listen, the recordings are here.

Opening the Wentz Concert Hall

The DuPage Symphony christened the new Wentz Concert Hall at North Central College on the 18th of October. There's a lot of details to work out with the acoustics of the hall, and I suspect it will take quite a bit of time to do so. However, I felt a sense of privilege having been the first timpanist to play on the stage! The program went as follows..

[] Beethoven: Overture to 'The Consecration of the House'
[] Mozart: Sinfonia Concertante in E-flat Major, K. 364
[] Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 5 in E minor, Op. 64

The orchestra made leaps and bounds from the end of the season last year to this first concert. This may partially be attributed to the inspiration to play well in the new hall, or it may just be easier to hear across the stage and have a more cohesive feel throughout the ensemble. Either way, the group sounds better, and you can listen to the recording here.

New Advances in Snare Drum Techniques

Often times I discuss with people the interesting techniques that modern composers devise to extend the sound palette of percussion instruments. Sure, we all know about a bowed tamtam, dipping a gong into water to lower it's pitch, or using a hard rubber mallet to bend the pitch of a vibraphone, but finding some new and interesting technique for the snare drum is hard to come by.

Recently I ordered a few new pieces of music from some of my favorite Japanese composers: Takayoshi Yoshioka's Suite No. 1, 2, and 3 (for solo marimba) and Rhapsody for Marimba, Flute, Clarinet, Contrabass and Drums, Akira Nishimura's Improvisation (for solo marimba), and Shin-Ichiro Ikebe's A Snare Growls, and He Flies (for snare drum solo).



Perusing new music is always fun. Japanese music looks almost as good on the page as it sounds when performed.



When turning the pages of Ikebe's A Snare Growls I came across the composer's request for the performer to do a few non-standard techniques; play on the stand of the snare drum, stomp on the ground with the foot, and (my favorite) "rub [the drum] with super-ball (small)". Personally I have not seen the super-ball used as an implement prior to this occasion, but I'm guessing it creates a buzzing sound with friction against the drum head. A picture is worth a thousand words, so...



Look for another article, coming soon, that demonstrates the sound of this trick! Right now, I'm off to look for a super-ball...