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Exploring Percussion as Ritual By DANIEL DRUCKMAN
"Here the memories are of a Hindu, princely funeral ceremony—for two months the villagers have been making preparations—hundreds have turned out wearing their most lavish and colourful clothes, and carrying offerings of food on their heads. First there is the noisy procession down to the river for purification of the soul, then a short ceremony, and then the vast funeral pyre is set alight. At this moment it seems as though the whole village has exploded into music and dancing—soon, some go into trance. Gradually the physical form of the pyre disintegrates, and the spirit of the deceased is formally set free to mingle with the spirit world. In the evening, when the festivities have moved on to another place, some mourners lament beside the glowing embers."
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| Taikoza, a Japanese music and dance group—and one example of an ensemble using ritual drumming in its performances—playing at a Swiss venue in 2004. (Photo by Marco Lienhard) |
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So begins James Wood's description of the inspiration for his Village Burial With Fire, a work from 1989 that serves as the centerpiece for the Juilliard Percussion Ensemble's upcoming concert. This program is subtitled "Rituals," and explores several modern composers' attempts to recreate ancient/traditional ceremonies through the medium of the percussion ensemble.Percussion has been linked closely to ceremony and ritual throughout history. One need only think of shamanistic drumming of Asia, Santerian voodoo rituals of Haiti, Native American dancing/drumming ceremonies, Kodo drumming of Japan, ceremonial court drumming of Korea, even the Janissary music of the Turks. In these ceremonies, percussion plays differing roles—but most often involves summoning or representing deities. Many 20th-century composers have been intrigued by the power and drama of these ancient rituals, and often turn to the percussion ensemble in an attempt to re-create or comment on them. Our concert represents only a small sampling of these works.Christopher Rouse (b. 1949), Pulitzer Prize-winner and Juilliard faculty member, has written extensively for percussion. Ogoun Badagris, perhaps his best known and most often performed work in this medium, was written for the Ithaca College Percussion Ensemble in 1976. It derives its inspiration from Haitian drumming patterns and various aspects of voodoo ritual. Ogoun Badagris is one of the most terrible and violent of all voodoo deities, and can be appeased only by human blood sacrifice. The piece is scored for five percussionists and paints a vivid picture of this intense, barbaric rite.
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Juilliard Percussion Ensemble
Alice Tully Hall
Monday, April 4, 8 p.m.
Free tickets available in the Juilliard Box Office beginning March 21.
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Akira Nishimura (b. 1953) writes music heavily influenced by the time concepts, rhythmic cycles, and scales of Indian classical music. In Ketiak (1979) he turns to the music of Bali, specifically a dance/drama based on the Indian epic Ramayana. In this traditional folk art a small group of dancers is surrounded by more than 100 men imitating monkeys' calls by chanting in a sharply pronounced, rhythmic style. The chanters are divided into several groups that pass quick, interlocking rhythmic patterns back and forth. Nishimura's Ketiak is scored for four "chanters" who also play hand drums, claves, and maracas, and two soloists (playing timpani and chimes) who play contrasting melodic material based on Indian ragas.Giacinto Scelsi (1905-1988), a reclusive and deeply mystical Italian aristocrat, poet, and surrealist, spent most of his life in quiet isolation in Rome, completely detached from the official avant-garde. A great admirer of Berg and Scriabin but largely self-taught as a composer (and, by all accounts, a master improviser), he was profoundly influenced by Eastern philosophies and religion, particularly the hypnotic repetition of ritual chant and dances. For him, music was a link with the transcendental, and he considered his calling not as a composer but as an intermediary between two worlds. I Riti: The Death of Achilles (1962) is a brief, mysterious piece made up of small, repetitive fragments whose very eastern, non-developmental aesthetic is typical of Scelsi's work.Australian composer and percussionist Michael Askill (b. 1952) is the founder of Synergy Percussion and a former member of the Melbourne and Sydney Symphonies. He is an extraordinarily eclectic artist whose music and music-making has crossed many borders, both between classical and jazz-rock traditions, as well as between western and Asian and/or indigenous Australian musics. His Lemurian Dances (1990) considers the legend of an ancient sunken continent that encompasses many of the pacific rim cultures, and the resultant music that might ensue.This promises to be an unusual and thought-provoking concert experience. Please join us in Alice Tully Hall on April 4 as the "Rituals" unfold!Daniel Druckman, a percussion faculty member since 1991, directs the Juilliard Percussion Ensemble.
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