7 February 2013

Do you like things that go bang? Nomad Percussion might be for you!

| johnboy
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nomad percussion

This just in will be of interest to some of you:

Nomad Percussion is a new music ensemble comprised of young musicians William Jackson, Yvonne Lam, Bart Haddock, Jonathan Griffiths, Anna Ng, and Veronica Bailey. The percussionists, aged 19 – 27, will present their new concert, TRANS/MUTE, on February 19 at the ANU Arts Centre. Nomad Percussion’s first concert of 2013 explores percussion as a medium of sound-art. This is a world where toy pianos, clock coils, and glass bottles are layered, re-configured, and mutated to form sound tapestries that are strange, new, and exciting to the ears. This is contemporary and experimental music at its best. TRANS/MUTE is supported by the Friends of the School of Music and the Australian National University.

All six members are past or present students of the ANU School of Music. Their musical qualifications range from continuing undergraduates to masters degrees. They have also had extensive experience with Canberra’s premier music ensembles such as Canberra Symphony Orchestra, DRUMatiX Percussion Ensemble, National Capital Orchestra, Canberra Youth Orchestra, and local festivals including the Canberra International Music Festival, Canberra Festival, and You Are Here Festival. Nomad Percussion, formed in 2012, is their new and independent contemporary music ensemble. The ensemble strives to present challenging contemporary music to a diverse audience, irrespective of age or musical inclination.

TRANS/MUTE includes the world premiere of a new work by Sydney musician and ANU alumnus Bree van Reyk (Synergy Percussion, Ensemble Offspring, Holly Throsby). The renowned percussionist, drummer and composer plays with countless ensembles, but this is the first time van Reyk has been commissioned to write a piece for another ensemble. Her as-yet-untitled work draws from a chorale by J.S. Bach, and invert and mutates the harmonic structure into a riveting aural experience. Van Reyk’s arrangements of John Cage’s Prepared Piano Sonatas #2 and #13 will also be performed by Nomad Percussion.

The concert’s namesake refers to Transmutations, by Anthony Pateras. The Melbourne composer is well-known for his exploratory musical style. In Transmutations, for percussion sextet, the focus is not on tune, or harmony. Inanimate objects become new sound sources that shift and blur – brake drums and glass bottles are played with manic energy and relentless intensity, then give way to plastic bags and rocks which form a eerie sonic tapestry. This is Nomad Percussion’s second encounter with Pateras’s music – in 2012, their debut concert featured Pateras’s sextet, Refractions.

Other works on the program include:

    · Ostinato Pianissimo (1934) by Henry Cowell

    · Suite for Percussion (1942) by Lou Harrison

    · Third Construction (1941) by John Cage

    · Two Portraits for Bass Dru, (1974) by Steven Gryce

    · Trio per Uno, Mvt. #1 (1995) by Nebojsa Zivkovic

What: TRANS/MUTE, presented by Nomad Percussion
When and Where:
Canberra: Sunday 17th Feb, 4pm. ANU Arts Centre
Sydney: Monday 18th Feb, 6pm. Sydney Conservatorium of Music, Recital Hall West.
Tickets: $15 concession, $20 adults. Available at the door.

Background information

Nomad Percussion is a new contemporary music group, comprised of young percussionists from around Australia.

The majority of Nomad’s members are still in their early 20s. However, their youth has not curbed their musical ambition. In 2012, Nomad Percussion performed Iannis Xenakis’s epic work, Persephassa, not once, but twice. They had the great privilege of being invited to perform the 30-minute work at the Canberra Festival. Since then, Nomad Percussion has been invited to perform with Ensemble Evolution (Swed), at the You Are Here Festival (Canb), and as part of an international web-stream of Erik Satie’s Vexations as part of the Make Music New York Festival.

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And it was fine, illustrating just how much fits into the large tin can we label ‘percussion’. There were mini-pianos of the sort toddlers use to drive their parents mad. There were clackers and drums with strings through their guts that made sad, ship-like wails. There was even a conch shell (or I think it was, not being an expert in conchology). That one showed that there is an end to percussion, as it was more a trumpet than a drum. But it’s all about moving air around, I suppose.

I love this sort of thing, where you hear new noises and have to think a bit as you listen.

Thank you for this, clever young persons.

Zed said :

Ben_Dover said :

What’s the difference between a percussionist and a drum machine?

Oh how to answer this one- Im damned either way having a percussionist in the family as well as playing with many drummers over the years.
I guess first I should ask is a drummer a percussionist??

Anyhow in relation to a drummer I can say that a drum machine is different in that it wont forget the arrangement after it is learned. It wont get drunk and then become a public embarrasment. With sufficient fuel it wont drop the beat. The tempo will remain consistant with each performance………..;-()

Alternately a drummer………..who am I trying to kid! If I had the time I’d do a proper job of programing BFD and never work with a drummer again. Then again learning to play an instrument is so old school- everyone knows being a DJ is much cooler!

OK bring on the flames now!

Somehow I think that potential Senator Zed is a programmable drum machine, rather than a musician…Sorry, this Zed, for dragging in that other one.

This concert looks fine, though.

How can you tell when there’s a percussionist at the front door?

The knocking continually speeds up and slows down, and they never know when to come in….

What do you do when you answer the door to a percussionist?

Pay him for the pizza….

Ben_Dover said :

What’s the difference between a percussionist and a drum machine?

Drum machine won’t run off with your girlfriend?

Ben_Dover said :

What’s the difference between a percussionist and a drum machine?

You only have to punch the rhythm once into a drum machine….

Ben_Dover said :

What’s the difference between a percussionist and a drum machine?

Oh how to answer this one- Im damned either way having a percussionist in the family as well as playing with many drummers over the years.
I guess first I should ask is a drummer a percussionist??

Anyhow in relation to a drummer I can say that a drum machine is different in that it wont forget the arrangement after it is learned. It wont get drunk and then become a public embarrasment. With sufficient fuel it wont drop the beat. The tempo will remain consistant with each performance………..;-()

Alternately a drummer………..who am I trying to kid! If I had the time I’d do a proper job of programing BFD and never work with a drummer again. Then again learning to play an instrument is so old school- everyone knows being a DJ is much cooler!

OK bring on the flames now!

What’s the difference between a percussionist and a drum machine?

Jonathan Griffiths? Any connection?

None I’m aware of.

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