New Sounds with Royal Holloway Percussion Ensemble - 12 March 2024 - Event Programme

NEW SOUNDS 2024

We are pleased to welcome you to our 2023-24 International Concert Series at Royal Holloway.

We, at the Department of Music, cannot wait to showcase the varied talent of our students and staff, but also bringing internationally renowned musicians to the College. For 2023-24, we are back and better than ever with more student and staff opportunities through the creation of 'The Platform', an open opportunity for the community at the Department of Music to share with you what makes us so special. Alongside our popular Midweek Music and Pocket Concert Series, we are excited to continue our special partnerships with the Young Classical Artists Trust and BBC New Generation Artists and continue our alumni recital series by bringing back the epoch ensemble. We are pleased to also bring a wealth of international artists to our series, including pianists Pina Napolitano, Mary Dullea, Sholto Kynoch, Alexander Soares, and Joseph Havlat, violinst Darragh Morgan, guitarist Laura Snowden, clarinettist Jonathan Leibovitz,

sitarist James Pusey, mezzosoprano Helen Charlston, jazz group Solstice, and the London Mozart Players. 2023 also marks the final season for our quartet-in-residence, the Tippett Quartet, as we say farewell to this stellar group with their final concert at Royal Holloway.

All in all, this season is representative of the world-class talent our community at the Department of Music has fostered as we showcase our students and the range of music performance we programme and encourage; from jazz to world music, orchestral performance to solo piano, as well as presenting performers from the international stage We look forward to welcoming you to our series this year.

Nathan James Dearden Music Performance Manager & Curator of the International Concert Series

New Sounds 2024: Pulses

International Concert Series 2023-24

Tuesday, 12 March 2024

Windsor Building Auditorium with Royal Holloway Percussion Ensemble

Tom Wagner Director

Estimated finish time: 9 00pm

There will be no interval during this event. Please no flash photography or visual/audio recording throughout the event.

For news about our future events, please visit royalholloway.ac.uk/music/events

EVENT PROGRAMME

Book Bash

Brian Slawson

Book Bash takes place in a classroom filled with identical desks occupied by students quietly studying the contents of their hardcover books. An optional offstage bell (or buzzer) rings to enhance the school setting. Not long after, a student unknowingly begins to fidget rhythmically as others gradually join the fray. Finger rolls on desks, hand claps, fist pounds, foot stomps and book slams build to an impressive climax just shy of the final bell.

– Brian Slawson

Cemetery Salsa

Brian Slawson

Salsa is one of the most vibrant styles of Latin-American music and dance. Although its traditional rhythms and chord progressions are very distinct, Salsa’s popular appeal continues to flourish as tasteful elements of rock, jazz, and rhythm and blues are welcomed into the form.

In Cemetery Salsa, traditional chord changes complemented by odd and fluctuating time signatures provide a

quirky musical experience. By contrast, the waltz section should be soft, flowing, and connected, while the bass remains distant and muddled.

– Brian Slawson

Cognition

Kyle H. Peters

Cognition is an introductory piece to multiple percussion setups, through which each player learns to read multiple percussion instruments on one staff. The word “cognition” refers to the mental action or process of acquiring knowledge and understanding through experience.

Musically, a machine-like groove must be maintained throughout. Three phrases are introduced at the beginning of the piece and slowly evolve and develop over time.

– Kyle H. Peters

Five on Five Stephen Primatic

Five on Five requires five players to play on a single five-octave marimba. The challenge for each player is therefore not only to play the rapidfire the notes but also to coordinate their movements with the player(s) next to them. The piece features a

continuous, driving semi-quaver pulse. This pulse is juxtaposed with a lighter, but no less energetic, halftime feel in the C section, before it returns to bring the piece to its conclusion.

– Tom Wagner

Arrythmia

Walker Martz

Arrhythmia is a fun, energetic, “drummy” quartet. Hocket melodies are created throughout the piece by combining the separate drum parts, while a steady eighth-note rim pattern helps the musicians keep their place. This piece was largely inspired by split marching bass drum parts and was originally written with those instruments in mind, then adapted as a concert piece for four toms.

-Walker Martz

Changing Winds

Lisa

Ann Marsh

From climate change to political upheaval, we are continually confronted with shifts and changes that challenge our stability.

Changing Winds for percussion quartet is my attempt to show sentiments in a changing world; ever dynamic, yet always strong and hopeful.

– Lisa Ann Marsh

Clapping Music

Steve Reich

Written in 1972, Clapping Music is a staple of the minimalist percussion repertoire. The piece is based on a single rhythm that is based on a West African bell pattern. The piece begins with both players clapping the same pattern. Every 12 bars, player 2 shifts the pattern forward one quaver (one half beat), creating a new resultant pattern between the two players. This continues until the players return to unison, ending after 144 bars.

Clapping Music is written to be performed by two players. Here, we are performing it with 22 players (which might make it 11 times harder!).

– Tom Wagner