welcome to szsolomon.com
a site about percussionist sam z. solomon
Instructions (2014) — Nico Muhly
Play constant 8th notes with your right hand on an instrument with a simple, not-annoying timbre. With your other three limbs (if you have them), create a process such that the distance between notes played becomes larger and larger, until the distance is so austere that you have to stop.
undiscovere’d (2014) — Ken Ueno
Facing the arsenal of your past,
Prepare yourself by thinking of all that you have ever done with said arsenal.
Now, do something you have never done with it.
Having done that, write it down.
This will become a list of future prohibitions in performing this piece,
the ever unfolding score.
Four Pieces for Percussion (2014) — Samuel Solomon
I. cowbell bongo. cowbell bongo bongo. bongo cowbell, cowbell, cowbell bass drum. . rainstick.
II. guiro drum drum drum drum guiro. . . guiro drum drum drum vibrasap gong. . . slapstick.
III. bass drum . . bass drum . . tam-tam . . . bass drum . . bass drum . . tam-tam woodblock.
IV. woodblock anvil. anvil. anvil. . woodblock woodblock bass drum.
For Percussion Perhaps, Or… (night) (8/6/1971) — James Tenny
very soft
very long
nearly white
Music For Percussion (1965) — Douglas Leedy
At the beginning of the piece, the performance area is found to be entirely filled with percussion instruments of every available sort.
Two men
(preferably one quite large, the other small in stature)
dressed in ordinary workmen’s attire,
enter the performance area and,
as carefully and quietly as they can,
remove every instrument,
one at a time,
in any convenient order.
When the performance area is empty of instruments, the piece is finished.
Rolling Meditation (1989) — Pauline Oliveros
for a Soloist or an Ensemble of Percussionists
The selected instrument is to be played either with alternating hands, mallets, sticks or brushes for the duration of the performance.
Preparation
Imagine all of the possible sounds to be made on a selected instrument using only a continuous single-stroke roll. To begin the roll, imagine one of the sounds. Keep the sound in mind. Imagine the physical movements that are necessary to make this sound, i.e. where your hands or mallets will hit the instrument. Imagine the rate and the intensity of the alternating strokes.
Performance
Allow the roll to begin involuntarily as a result of the strength of your imagination. Try to continue to imagine the roll as the involuntary realization of the roll continues. Allow the roll to seek out new sounds involuntarily as you continue to imagine the sound, its tempo and the corresponding physical movements necessary to make the sound. The performance is over if your mind wanders.
If you are successful in this meditation, your physical movements will follow your imagination. You will be aware of the sounds you are performing only slightly (milliseconds) after they are performed and your imagination will be stimulated by the feedback of your involuntary performance.
The piece will feature organic shifts in tempo and gradual timbral transformations from rolling on different parts of the instrument and from the resultant standing waves that are created by the acoustics of the performance space.
Each instrument of the ensemble could also be amplified and processed by filters, delays or other modulation devices.
The above is a small collection of text pieces for percussion, some of which have been written for this site. This collection is not comprehensive. It’s just for fun. If you know of a piece or would like to contribute a new piece, let me know!