World Percussion Ensemble

Описание: World Percussion Ensemble
Under the direction of Randy Gloss

The CalArts World Percussion Ensemble is an ongoing experimental forum for bringing together the percussion, drumming, and world music traditions at CalArts. The ensemble bridges cultures and musical ideas, creating an entirely new work for percussion consisting of both highly fixed compositions and extended improvisations.
The World Percussion Ensemble was conceived in the early days of the institute by founding faculty and percussion vanguard, the late John Bergamo. It remains a vital and integral platform for percussionists and world music students to explore the possibilities within the world of drumming

Program

Kanda Chappu (a medley of fives) (Randy Gloss)
This piece borrows from other short compositions and sections of pieces from the composer stitched together to create a larger modular work. The continuous thread is an underlying cycle of kanda chappu, 5/8, 2 ½, or 2+3 that runs throughout the piece, with fixed compositions, improvisations, and overlying cross-pulses that uniquely define and frame each section.

National Geographic Oro (Randy Gloss)
This composition was specifically written as a one page "hythm etude," utilizing some of the odd-metered rhythms found in Balkan Music as the thematic material for the piece, with an overall structure found in Indian tala systems (where one idea is reducing, while another is expanding, but overall remains equal to a larger cycle). It was conceived for potentially any number of players and with open instrumentation, in addition to being modular in arrangement and form.

The title of this piece comes from an experience backstage after a concert, from a well-known eastern European musician, who said: "You know, you play good, but you play like National Geographic." | didn't know exactly if it was meant as a compliment, insult, or perhaps a bit of both. Regardless, I really liked the thought of playing like National Geographic. So when I got back from that tour, I dug through my notes and found this one page etude that I had previously written, gave it this title, and brought it into my then percussion group Hands On'Semble, and since then it's been performed and recorded in different incarnations by different groups around the world (U.S., Canada, Brazil, Germany, Taiwan). This performance exclusively features the sound of clay pot drums.

7 Days of Quarantine (Meng-Hang Shih)
This piece was composed during the quarantine last summer, when the government's COVID policy required that every traveler must stay in a hotel for 7 days upon returning to Taiwan. The main idea of the piece is to keep the frame of the 3+2+2 subdivision to show the groove of 7 beats, put it into different tempo sections (slow, medium, fast), and use different cultural musical logic to demonstrate it, with free instrumental choosing. For this festival, we're leaning into Middle Eastern, Brazilian, and African colors to perform the piece.


Marinate and a Half (Randy Gloss)
This piece set to a cycle of 8 ½ beats was simultaneously written for three iterations: the CalArts World Percussion Ensemble as a quintet; a trio piece for the percussion group Hands On'Semble; and as a duo version for the composer and fellow percussionist Pete Lockett (released on their 2020 duo album, Stones In The Yard. The title references a joke made in rehearsal about "poking holes and marinating" and in the true spirit of the composer's mentor, John Bergamo and his fondness of puns, ensemble member at that time, Anthony Ty Johnson gave it this most suitable title.

Performers
Randy Gloss*
Lucas Lenique
Sebastian Nassar
Ben Schultz
Meng-Hang Shih

*faculty

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