Nick DiBerardino
1726 Locust Street Philadelphia, PA 19103 203-216-9552 nick@nickdiberardino.com
Jointly commissioned by arx duo and Symphony Tacoma Sarah Ioannides, Music Director
First performed on April 22, 2023 by Symphony Tacoma at Pantages Theater, Tacoma Garrett Arney and Mari Yoshinaga, percussion Conducted by Sarah Ioannides
COMPOSER’S NOTE
My Double Percussion Concerto for arx duo has been a dream project for many years. I have known arx for almost a decade and love many things about them: the energy in their playing, their infectiously engaging personalities, and their habit of imagining percussion instruments as seamlessly integrated members of the orchestra. Above all, I admire arx for their commitment to drawing together everyone in the room – for their desire to engage with as many communities as possible in their music-making, which is a passion we share. My concerto is inspired by all these qualities.
I wanted to deliver the goods in this music, leaning into some of the things percussion does best. This music grooves, pulses, and above all, dances. There are moments of rhythmic trickery in this piece that were influenced by my favorite contemporary dance music work by composers like Anna Meredith and Squarepusher. The rhythmic language in these passages trades on expectation and surprise, emphasizing repeated patterns before subverting expectations.
I think of this piece as a syncopated, slithering way for the orchestra to move together with the percussion soloists. That idea of togetherness is centrally important to the piece Instead of engaging with the traditional soloist vs. orchestra dynamic of a typical concerto, I imagined this work as a concerto for percussion duo and orchestra, with both parties working together The phasing section of this piece captures that kind of virtuosity: it foregrounds the artistry of how two musicians interact with one another, and with the orchestra, rather than emphasizing their technical ability as solo players
For a percussion concerto, this piece is also very much obsessed with pitch. In that domain, my Double Percussion Concerto has an especially close kinship with Beethoven. Love him or hate him, it’s undeniable that Beethoven’s favorite musical patterns have influenced composers for centuries. I suppose I’m now joining those ranks, except that in this piece I’ve worked towards an aesthetic that twists Beethoven’s turns of phrase. This concerto is partly comprised of stolen elements of Beethoven’s vocabulary, ones that have been distorted into somewhat deranged progressions that I think sound fresh. They certainly make me smile, and I hope they’ll do the same for you.
Nick DiBerardino
DOUBLE PERCUSSION CONCERTO
Duration: c. 18 minutes
INSTRUMENTATION
2 Flutes (2nd doubling piccolo)
2 Oboes
2 Clarinets in Bb
2 Bassoons
2 Horns in F
2 Trumpets in C
Timpani
Percussion (1 player)
Glockenspiel, Xylophone, Small Suspended Cymbal, Large Suspended Cymbal, Tambourine,
3 Floor Toms (low to high), Bass Drum
Harp
Solo Percussion (2 players)
Player 1: Marimba, Vibraphone, Crotales, Suspended Cymbal, Four Skins (low to high), Kick Drum
Player 2: Marimba, Glockenspiel, Suspended Cymbal, Four Skins (low to high), Kick Drum Strings
MULTIPERCUSSION NOTATION
PERFORMANCE NOTES
Trills should be executed between the notated pitch and an adjacent upper pitch; the accidentals above each trill apply to the adjacent upper pitch.
All grace notes should occur before the beat.
In the horn parts, “-14” and “-31” indicate natural harmonics. These natural horn passages should be played without correcting the intonation of the harmonics in question. “-14” indicates a just major third (5th partial, 14 cents flat compared to an equal tempered major third), and “-31” indicates a septimal 7th (7th partial, 31 cents flat compared to an equal tempered minor 7th).
All glissandi should be continuous, lasting the full duration of the indicated note value.
All tremolos should be unmetered.
Throughout the piece, the motive comprised of alternating thirds (e g., viola, mm.1-7) should be treated as primary motivic material. The quarter notes in this gesture should always be phrased long – better to hold them over the barline than cut them off short.
This score is transposed.