Saturday, April 20, 2024 • 4 p.m.
The Ohio State University Percussion Ensemble
Susan Powell and Joseph Krygier, directors
presents
“Drumming” by Steve Reich
Wexner Center Performance Space
1871 N. High Street • Columbus, Ohio
Pre-concert discussion at 3:30 p.m.
with special guest Russell Hartenberger
Program
Clapping Music
Steve Reich (b. 1936)
Clapping Music Variations
Glen Kotche (b. 1970)
Drumming
Steve Reich
Part I
Part II
Part III
Part IV
Drumming Ensemble
Kalie Dawson, senior • Queen Creek, Arizona
Matt Hanson, junior • Pickerington, OH
Ben Kerger, senior • Toledo, OH
Noah Landrum, MM • Homerville, Georgia
Tres Perkins, MM • Abilene, Texas
Kye Pyeatt, MM • Abilene, Texas
Erin Rybinski, senior • Circleville, OH
Sam Sherer, DMA • Dickinson, North Dakota
Haydn Veith, sophomore • Dassel, Minnesota
ASSISTING MUSICIANS
Meagan Gaskill, piccolo
Matt Hanson, whistler
Xiao Liu, vocalist
Lauren Meadows, vocalist
Additional performers
Clapping Music and Clapping Music Variations
Stephen Alexander, freshman • Lewis Center, Ohio
Evelyn Fitzgerald, freshman • Cincinnati, OH
Brody Fogle, freshman • Cambridge, OH
Peter Kindt, freshman • Maineville, OH
T. J. Mann, freshman • Pickerington, OH
Mary Paydock, sophomore • Canal Fulton, OH
Adam Quinn, sophomore • Wadsworth, OH
Polly Regan, freshman • Wayzata, Minnesota
Kyle Turner, senior • Hilliard, OH
Anthony Berman, Ohio State University Percussion Club
Andrew Bourget, Percussion Club
Joshua Boyd, Pickerington North High School
Donna Brown, Ohio State percussion studio alum
Alex Brudnicki, studio alum
Logan Crawford, Pickerington North High School, incoming freshman
Amelia Duplain, studio alum
Wesley Giles, Gahanna Lincoln High School, incoming freshman
Mario Marini, studio alum
Sophia Pack, Percussion Club
Clay Schneider, studio alum
Ben Shaheen, studio alum
Ryan Speicher, Orrville High School
Dovie Weiner, Bexley High School
Marie Zantopulous, Percussion Club
Special Thanks
Wexner Center
Sonia Baidya-Mericle — Production Manager
Kathleen Felder — Senior Producer, Performing Arts
Emily Haidet — Curator, Public Programs
Devon Lee — Audio Engineer
John Smith — Technical Director
Gabe Whitnack — Lighting Technician / Lighting Board Operator
Lisa Florman — Vice Provost for the Arts
Michael Ibrahim — Director, School of Music
Tami Morris — Marketing and Communications, School of Music
Jayne Allison — Digital Content Coordinator, School of Music
Performance Notes
Russell Hartenberger
In Drumming, phasing occurs when two or more players play the identical rhythmic pattern and one of those players moves gradually ahead of the other(s) until arriving at the next interlocking position. Steve Reich described the process of phasing as “essentially a form of canon using irrational numbers.” The term “irrational” can also be applied to the way I feel when I am in the midst of a phase. Phasing is a counterintuitive process for performing musicians since it requires one player to move away from the other player(s) in an asynchronous rhythmic relationship rather than feeling a mutually synchronous pulse, and to perform this process as gradually as possible. Consequently, it imposes unique performance demands and even irrational thinking on the players.
When I first began phasing in Drumming, I felt like I was entering a space-time continuum and was losing all sense of contact with the other player, the music, time, and my hands; I felt I had no control over the process that was unfolding and simply hoped for the best. As I moved out of phase with the person across the bongos from me, I felt as though I was leaving earth’s atmosphere and all that was comfortable and secure. In the most irrational part of the phase, I had no idea whose hands were making which sounds and I did not know where my pattern was in relation to the other part. If I was lucky enough to reach the next interlocking pattern, I was elated but surprised and had no sense of how much time had elapsed during the phase. I was happy to be back on familiar ground and did not think about what I should be doing musically while participating in the new composite pattern.
The juxtaposition of Drumming and West African drumming is compelling because of the complex rhythms and the learning process used in both. The players in Drumming learned the piece by rote, a process of imitation and repetition. Having taught Drumming to many groups of musicians over more than forty years, I find that teaching it by rote is still the quickest and most effective way for players to learn the piece. By foregoing notation, the players bypass the step of memory transference from the printed page thus giving them a heightened awareness of the process of the piece.
Program Notes
Steve Reich
For one year, between the fall of 1970 and the fall of 1971, I worked on what turned out to be the longest piece I have ever composed. Drumming lasts from 55 to 75 minutes (depending on the number of repeats played) and is divided into four parts that are performed without pause. The first part is for four pairs of tuned bongo drums, stand-mounted and played with sticks; the second, for three marimbas played by nine players together with two women’s voices; the third, for three glockenspiels played by four players together with whistling and piccolo; and the fourth section is for all these instruments and voices combined.
In the context of my own music, Drumming is the final expansion and refinement of the phasing process, as well as the first use of four new techniques: (1) the process of gradually substituting beats for rests (or rests for beats); (2) the gradual changing of timbre while rhythm and pitch remain constant; (3) the simultaneous combination of instruments of different timbre; and (4) the use of the human voice to become part of the musical ensemble by imitating the exact sound of the instruments.
Drumming begins with two drummers building up the basic rhythmic pattern of the entire piece from a single drum beat, played in a cycle of 12 beats with rests on all the other beats. Gradually additional drumbeats are substituted for the rests, one at a time, until the pattern is completed. The reduction process is simply the reverse where rests are gradually substituted for the beats, one at a time, until only a single beat remains.
The sections are joined together by the new instruments doubling the exact pattern of the instruments already playing. At the end of the drum section (Part 1), three drummers are joined by three marimba players who enter softly playing the same pattern; the drummers gradually fade out so that the same rhythm and pitches are maintained with a gradual change of timbre. At the end of the marimba section (Part 2), three marimbas played in their highest range are doubled by three glockenspiels in their lowest range so that again, rhythm and pitch are maintained while timbre changes. In the last section of Drumming, all instruments and voices are combined simultaneously (for the first time in my music) and the overall sound becomes considerably richer.
The voices in Drumming do not sing words, but precisely imitate the sound of the instruments. The women’s voices sing patterns resulting from the combination of two or more marimbas playing identical repeating pattern, one of more quarter notes out of phase with each other. By exactly imitating the sound of the instruments, and by gradually fading the patterns in and out, the singers cause them to slowly rise to the surface of the music and then fade back into it, allowing the listener to hear these patterns sounding in the instruments themselves. For the marimbas, the female voice was needed; for the glockenspiels, the high range of the instrument necessitated whistling, and in its extremely high range, the piccolo.
The sections, then, are not set off from each other by changes of key, the traditional means of gaining extended length in Western music. Drumming demonstrates the possibility of maintaining the same key for quite a while if there are instead considerable rhythmic developments together with occasional, but complete, changes of timbre to supply variety.
As mentioned earlier, in the context of my own music, Drumming is the final expansion and refinement of the phasing process, a process discovered with tape loops that does not appear elsewhere in non-Western or Western music. Drumming also has only one basic rhythmic pattern throughout. This pattern undergoes changes of phase position, pitch, and timbre, but all the performers play this pattern, or some part of it, throughout the entire piece.
Join us…
School of Music performances are free, unless indicated otherwise. Many performances are livestreamed for later viewing.
Would you like to receive reminders about upcoming events? Subscribe to our weekly e-newsletter, OVATION.
Visit music.osu.edu/events for upcoming performances, lectures and more.
Visit music.osu.edu/outreach for opportunities for middle/high school musicians and educators.
Upcoming Ohio State Percussion Events
Sunday, April 21 | 3 p.m.
Wexner Center for the Arts, Counterpoints Series
Wexner Galleries
Visit wexarts.org for April 21 information and FREE tickets
Saturday, May 11 | 7:30 p.m.
Newark-Granville Symphony Orchestra
Midland Theater
Featuring Susan Powell performing Jennifer Higdon’s Percussion Concerto
Visit ngsymphony.org for May 11 information and ticket purchase