Perhaps it is only natural that the worlds of percussion and music technology have shared a long and richly intertwined relationship. Percussion is, by its very nature, experimental: new instruments, new playing techniques, new combinations of sounds, new ideas are part of every creative percussionist’s arsenal. Music technology has also always been about experimentation, from the early days of laboriously spliced musique concrete and ring modulation to the dizzying possibilities of today’s omnipresent digital sampling. These two fields have, in different ways, continuously stretched musical boundaries and questioned the status quo.

Daniel Druckman. (Photo by Horst Hamann)

Percussion and music technology also share an important progenitor: the French/American composer and iconoclast Edgard Varèse. Varèse’s Ionisation (1933) is generally considered the first “western” work scored exclusively for percussion. Throughout his later works, Varèse increasingly relied on featuring non-pitched percussion instruments in prominent roles, increasing the importance of texture and timbre in his music over that of melody and harmony. Varèse was also a great pioneer in the field of music technology, and is often referred to as the “father” of modern electronic music. His vision of the future of music was one thrilled by the new possibilities offered by machines: liberation from the tempered tuning system resulting in “new harmonic splendors,” extended pitch range and dynamic spectrum, increased differentiation of timbre, and the limitless possibilities of unrelated cross-rhythms. In short, a music suffused with the sounds and energy of the industrial age.

On October 9 in the Juilliard Theater, the Juilliard Percussion Ensemble will join forces with the Music Technology Center and a large cast of guests to present an evening of music for percussion and music technology, highlighted by two world premieres by C. Bryan Rulon and Edward Bilous. Each of the five works on the program uses different aspects of technology—amplification, real-time processing, digital sampling, prerecorded tapes, electronic instruments, computers—to interact with and enlarge the sound palette of the live performers. The role of the technology in each piece differs greatly as well—from subtle, almost imperceptible enhancement to equal partner to overwhelming nemesis.

		The Juilliard Percussion Ensemble concert can be heard live on the Internet on October 9 at 8 p.m. at musictech.juilliard.edu.

In 1960 Mario Davidovsky began a longstanding association with the Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center, and embarked on his series of works entitled Synchronisms, which brought him widespread recognition and influenced an entire generation of composers and performers alike. His Synchronisms No. 5 (1969) is scored for five percussionists and electronically generated sounds on tape, and is considered a classic of this genre. As with the other pieces in this series, Davidovsky explores the sheer beauty of sound, its timbre and texture. While always carefully organized, his music has a shimmering, ever-changing surface that is never static, and exhibits a unique gift for combining and juxtaposing sounds in an unusual way. The tape, which enters about one third of the way through the piece, never overwhelms the acoustic instruments, but extends, transforms, and amplifies them in subtle fashion. As with all of Davidovsky’s music, precise coordination and balance between performers and tape are crucial to create a seamlessly blended sound world.

C. Bryan Rulon.

Joseph Pereira’s Facing the Mirror (2000) is scored for four percussionists surrounding the audience and four channels of prerecorded tape. The performers all wear microphones for vocal sounds, which are amplified and processed in real time, and each performer is “paired” with a loudspeaker. The piece explores the rhythms of human speech, the relationship between vocal and percussion sounds, and the spatial possibilities of this unusual configuration.

C. Bryan Rulon’s The Stelliferous Era (2001) is scored for 10 strings, eight percussionists, and computer. The strings are amplified with live signal processing (flanging, distortion, reverb, etc.). The percussionists play a large battery of instruments ranging from Peking Opera gongs and Chinese hand cymbals to corrugated metal hoses and kitchen utensils. The computer plays samples of the percussion instruments that have been “stretched” or modified digitally. The title refers to the cosmological period we now inhabit and is, in the composers words, “an expression of a poetic feeling about the vast, majestic and awe-inspiring phenomenon of stellar dynamics.”

Edward Bilous. (Photo by Marcelo Maia)

John Bergamo is a percussionist and composer who teaches at the California Institute of the Arts. His work, both as performer and composer, has always been deeply influenced by the hand-drumming traditions of India and the Middle East, and his pieces often seek a fusion between these ancient traditions and more modern western improvisational styles. Blanchard Canyon, scored for five performers (each playing one suspended cymbal), is an exploration of all the sonic possibilities of this unique group of instruments.

Hand-drumming also plays a central role in Black Madonna (2001), a large cantata by Edward Bilous, a portion of which will be premiered on this concert. Along with six percussionists, the piece is scored for three female voices, amplified strings, winds, piano and electronic keyboards, and acoustic and electric guitar. Edward Bilous is the chairman of Juilliard’s Literature and Materials department and supervises the Music Technology Center. The title refers to a Christian icon that began to appear at the end of the Roman Empire, and came to symbolize a more powerful, noble, and confident feminine spirit.

This promises to be a unique evening of music and machines; I hope you can join us. Free tickets for this concert are available from the Juilliard Box Office.

Daniel Druckman has been on the faculty since 1991 He is director of the Juilliard Percussion Ensemble and is a member of the New York Philharmonic.