How to Write for Percussion: A Comprehensive Guide to Percussion Composition

Contents

• Table of Contents
• Introduction
• How This Book is Organized
• Instruments Covered
• Working with Percussionists
• Location Specifics
• The Value of Not Reading This Book
• 1. General Framework
• A Dysfunctional Family
• Comparison of Family Relationships
• The Problem of Pitch
• The Pitches of Percussion
• The Validations and Limitations of Novelty
• Three Methods for Indeterminately Pitch Instruments
• The Written/Improv Divide
• Expanding the Color Palette (to Shrink the Setup)
• The Value of Improvised and Non-Notated Music
• Social Composition
• Write for People, Not Sounds
• Write What is Wanted, Not What To Do
• Working with Percussionists
• 2. General Logistics
• Instrument Choice and Management
• Six Stories, Three Sad and Three Happy
• Why Use Fewer Instruments?
• How to Consolidate
• Inexpensive Instruments
• Exotic Instruments
• Electronic Percussion
• Multiple Options for a Specified Instrument
• Instruments Percussionists May Not Play
• Multiple Percussionists
• Section Setup
• Orchestra
• Wind Ensemble
• Broadway Pit
• Drum Corps and Marching Bands
• Specialists
• Non-Percussionists Playing Percussion
• Chairs and Stands
• Issues of Playability
• Excessive Polyphony
• How Fast Percussionists Can Play
• Unidiomatic Writing-Music that Often Requires Memorization
• Dynamics
• Reaching Instruments
• Instruments with Pedals
• Physical Exertion and Shaking
• Working with Headphones or Headset Microphones
• 3. General Notation
• Basics of Percussion Parts and Scores
• Instrument List
• Instrument Key
• Setup Diagram
• Language
• Parts
• Cues
• Percussion in the Conductor's Score
• Dynamics
• Designing a Notational System
• Clefs
• Staves
• Noteheads
• Mixing Determinately and Indeterminately Pitched Instruments
• Key Signatures
• What Goes Where on the Staff
• The Chicken or the Egg?
• Unspecified Instruments (Indeterminate Instrumentation)
• How Much to Notate
• Systems of Notation for Which There is No Standard
• Return to a Normal Method of Playing
• Note Length, Articulation, and Phrasing
• Note Length Chart
• Exact or Inexact Note-Length Indications
• Muting (Muffling, Dampening)
• Dead Stroke
• Damper Pedals
• Rolls
• Notations that are Not Recommended
• Symbol Notation
• Altered Keyboard Notation (Timbre-Staff)
• 4. Beaters
• To Indicate or Not to Indicate?
• Beater Lingo
• Logistical Beater Issues
• Sticks
• Mallets
• Triangle Beaters, Knitting Needles
• Brushes
• Rute
• Chime Hammers
• Superball Mallet
• Beaters as Instruments
• Hands
• Bows
• 5. Keyboard Percussion
• Ranges and Construction
• Writing for Keyboard Percussion
• Stacked Instruments
• Multiple Players
• Extended Techniques
• Miscellaneous
• 6. Drums
• Sticks on Drums
• Mallets on Drums
• Hands on Drums
• Playing on the Rim or Shell
• Beating Spot
• Mutes
• Pitch Bending
• Drum Size
• Two-Headed Drums
• Multiple Drums in Setups
• Idiomatic Writing for Drums
• Timpani
• Tom-toms
• Snare Drum, Field Drum, Tenor Drum
• Concert Bass Drum, Pedal Bass Drum
• Bongos, Congas
• Timbales
• Roto-Toms
• Frame Drums
• Tambourines
• Djembe, Doumbek
• Boobams
• Drumset
• 7. Metal
• Cymbals
• Gongs
• Finger Cymbals
• Cowbells, Almglocken
• Temple Bowls, Mixing Bowls
• Brake Drums, Metal Pipes, Anvils, Bell Plates
• Thundersheet
• Junk Metal, Tin Cans, Pots and Pans
• Ribbon Crasher
• Spring Coil
• Church Bells
• Hand Bells
• Steel Drums
• Tambourines
• Sleighbells
• Metal Wind Chimes, Mark Tree, Bell Tree
• Flexatone
• Extended Techniques
• 8. Wood
• Woodblocks, Templeblocks, Log Drum
• Wooden Planks
• Wood Drums, Wooden Boxes, Cajon, Mahler Hammer
• Claves
• Castanets
• Rute
• Guiro
• Slapstick
• Ratchet
• Bamboo Wind Chimes
• 9. Miscellaneous Instruments
• Bottles
• Cabasa
• Conch Shell
• Crystal Glasses
• Maracas, Shakers
• Rainstick
• Rice Bowls, Flower Pots
• Sandpaper Blocks
• Sirens
• String Drum, Cuica
• Stones, Prayer Stones
• Thumb Piano
• Vibraslap
• Wind Chimes
• Whistles
• Wind Machine
• Appendix A. Repertoire Analysis
• Percussion Ensemble
• Edgard Varese, Ionisation (1929-31)
• John Cage, Constructions (1939-1942)
• Iannis Xenakis, Persephassa (1969)
• Steve Reich, Drumming (1970-71)
• Steve Mackey, It is Time (2010)
• John Luther Adams, Inuksuit (2009)
• Ryan Streber, Cold Pastoral (2004)
• Nico Muhly, Ta & Clap (2004)
• Adam Silverman, Naked and On Fire (2011)
• Paul Lansky, Travel Diary (2007)
• Orchestral
• Bela Bartok
• Sergei Prokofiev
• Maurice Ravel
• Gustav Mahler
• Dmitri Shostakovich
• Leonard Bernstein
• Carl Nielsen
• Jean Sibelius
• Wind Ensemble
• Smaller Mixed Ensemble
• John Adams, Chamber Symphony (1992)
• Stephan Hartke, Meanwhile (2007)
• Jacob Druckman, Come Round (1992)
• Charles Wuorinen, New York Notes (1982)
• Pierre Boulez, Sur Incises (1996/1998)
• Percussion Solo-Drums
• Michio Kitazume, Side by Side (1991)
• Elliott Carter, Eight Pieces for Four Timpani (1950/1966)
• Casey Cangelosi, Meditation No. 1 (2011)
• Percussion Solo-Keyboards
• Jacob Druckman, Reflections on the Nature of Water (1986)
• Paul Simon, Amulet (2008)
• Steve Mackey, See Ya Thursday (1992)
• Steve Swallow/Gary Burton, I'm Your Pal/Hullo Bolinas
• Donald Martino, Soliloquy (2003)
• Percussion Solo-Multi-Percussion
• Iannis Xenakis, Psappha (1975)
• David Lang, Anvil Chorus (1991)
• Roger Reynolds, Watershed (1995)
• Four Pieces for Setup #1
• Nico Muhly, It's About Time (2004)
• Michael Early, Raingutter (2007)
• Marcos Balter, Descarga (2006)
• Judd Greenstein, We Shall Be Turned (2006)
• Percussion Concerto
• James MacMillan, Veni Veni Emmanuel (1992)
• Einojuhani Rautavaara, Incantations (2008)
• Steven Mackey, Micro-Concerto (1999)
• Orchestrating Native Sounds
• Appendix B. Sample Setups
• Appendix C. Extended Techniques
• Return to a Normal Method of Playing
• Manipulations of Timbre
• Striking Unusual Parts of an Instrument
• Unusual Usage of Beaters
• Dead Stroke
• Beating Spot
• Bowing
• Friction Roll
• Scrape
• Prepared Instruments
• Pitch Bending
• Vibrato
• Adding Mass
• Sympathetic Resonance
• Clusters
• Harmonics
• Appendix D. Pitch Specification
• Appendix E. Dynamics
• Appendix F. Register
• Appendix G. Beaters
• Appendix H. Percussion Family Tree
• Pitch Clarity Chart
• Note Length Chart
• Register Chart
• Sound Production Chart
• The Percussion Family Tree