New Jersey
Percussion Ensemble
William Paterson University
Department of Music
presents
9th Annual Composer in Residence Day
Director
Peter Jarvis
with
Resident Composer
Wayne Peterson
featuring the
New Jersey Percussion Ensemble
and Friends
William Paterson University
Shea Center for the Performing Arts
Thursday, March 2, 2006
12:30 PM
Admission is $3.00
WPU Students - Free Admission
Mallets Aforethought (1990) - Wayne Peterson
for Percussion Quartet
I.
Omens
II.
Intermezzo
III.
Saturnalia
Brandan Hogan, Mark Richardson,
Shannon McClure, Shannon Zakarison
Peter Jarvis Conductor
from Four Preludes for Solo Piano (2000) - Wayne Peterson
II. Fading Embers
III. Valse Subliminale
Margaret Kampmeier - Piano
Monarch of the Vine (1998) - Wayne Peterson
for
Percussion Quartet
I.
Dithyramb
II.
Bacchanal
Justin Wolf, Michael Sperone,
April McCloskey, Joe Bergen
Peter Jarvis Conductor
Program notes by Wayne Peterson
Mallets Aforethought 1981 1982 was written in response to a Norman
Fromm Commission for the San Francisco Chamber Music Society. The 1982 premiere
performance was by the Jerome Neff Percussion Ensemble. This three movement
piece requires a minimum of four players. It employs an almost comprehensive
battery of percussion instruments, thus affording a rich and varied palette of
colors and effects.
The first movement,
Omens, takes
the form of a single, arch-like rise and fall. Beginning mysteriously with
non-pitched sounds, the keyboard instruments (vibraphone, marimba, xylophone,
etc.) are added and lead to a dramatic climax. As calm is gradually restored,
fragments of the opening measures return in reverse order and bring the movement
to an uneasy close.
Intermezzo combines the formal
procedures of both rondo and variation. The pattern is: A, B, A (variation 1, C,
A (variation 2), and A (variations 3) serving as a quietly concluding coda. The
gentle A sections deal exclusively with non-pitched instruments. Each of their
variations manipulates motifs from the first sixteen measures while adding new
sonorities. Pitched percussion dominates the B and C sections, the latter of
which containing the culminating tensions of the movement.
Saturnalia is a more conventional
rondo: (A B A C A Coda). Here the feeling of reckless abandon dominates. The B
and C sections offer momentary relief, the former hinting at a processional
containing references to an Indonesian Gamelan. The C portion, while maintaining
the tempo of the preceding passage, offers quiet dynamic relief via the
employment of wire brushes on various instruments. Immediately thereafter,
tensions rise dramatically, culminating in a violent, rhythmically irregular
coda.
My Preludes were
completed in December of the year 2000. They are dedicated to the acclaimed
pianist, David Holzman who encouraged their creation.
My goal was to write a group of
straight-forward pieces which were united by a common musical language. While
the Preludes are formally coherent in an abstract sense they all bear
programmatic titles suggestive of a scenario or mood.
Fading Embers was
inspired by evocative lines from a ninth century Chinese poet, Li Shang-yin:
Dreams of remote partings, cries which cannot summon. . .
In short, Fading Embers is
a wistful, nostalgic reawakening of poignant events buried in the past.
The over-all form in binary. The
first section contains three parts: a quiet, reflective opening, a passionate,
cadenza-like outcry and an abbreviated return to the beginning. Then, high
distant bells, gradually becoming more insistent, merge into sensuous harmonies
upon their descent. Immediately after they dissolve into pianissimo fragments,
the tolling bells return a final time to close the piece with funeral
inflections.
Strictly speaking, Valse
Subliminal is not a traditional waltz. It is, rather, a series of
surrealistic, often mercurial flashbacks concerning various aspects of the waltz
repertoire which have produced vivid impressions on me. Throughout the work are
indirect references to the music of Brahms, Berg, Ravel and Bill Evans.
The form is quite clear. A short
fanfare sets the stage for (1) a broad, expressionistic melody that is cut short
by (2) brief allusions to a fast jazz waltz. There follows a transition
consisting of an agitated, rhythmically irregular melody in the bass. Ascending
to the upper register, it leads to (3) concluding, fortissimo motifs reminiscent
of La Valse. These three components are expository. Two variations ensue
which greatly extend and develop this material particularly that pertaining to
the jazz waltz and the Ravel motifs. A high point culminating in a brilliant
presto flourish brings the piece to a resounding conclusion.
Monarch of the Vine
was completed in December of 1997. My intentions were to write aurally and
visually engaging music that took full advantage of the coloristic rhythmic
resources of a large battery of percussion instruments. The initial task
involved selecting a basic collection of membraphones and idiophones for each
member of the quartet that would be similar, yet somewhat distinct in sound,
thus enhancing the possibility for antiphonal dialogue. Foe example, each player
was given a number of drums, gongs, and cymbals which offered perceptibly
different tunings and timbres. In addition, four mallet instruments marimba,
vibraphone, xylophone and glockenspiel were similarly distributed. Other
choices were made on the basis of color contrast provided by the bell tree,
flexitone, assorted wind chimes, brass prayer bowls, etc.
Upon completion of this work, I
noticed that there were many moments in both the slow and fast movements which,
in spite of the exacting precision demanded of the ensemble, would seem quite
free and full of passionate abandon. By analogy, this reminded me of certain
rites emanating from ancient Greece and Rome which celebrated the euphoria
produced by the intoxicating defects of wine. It seemed appropriate, therefore,
to title the two respective movements, Dithyramb, a slow dance
honoring Dionysus, the Greek god of wine, and Bacchanal, a
festival of wild drunken revelry by the devotes of the Roman god Bacchus.
My compositional procedures are
essentially the same for both movements. The opening series of phrases present
melodic and rhythmic gestures which are subsequently combined, developed and
varied in a manner that should be immediately clear and direct to the listener.
The Dithyramb is formally the simplest, consisting of an exposition, development
and recapitulation in retrograde. The final, far more brilliant Bacchanal is
through composed. Its many highly charged and contrasting sections are related
to one another by gestures originating in the first 24 measures. As the
conclusion approaches, tensions reach their apex by way of a steadily increasing
rhythmic irregularity which culminates in a highly dissonant, fortissimo climax.
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04/30/2006 09:10:42 PM