Program Notes

While percussion instruments are among the oldest in human history, the concept of concert music for percussion instruments alone is a recent development relative to the rest of Western Classical music. Early works by Edgard Varèse, John Cage, Johanna Beyer, Lou Harrison, Carlos Chávez, Henry Cowell, and others, dating from the 1930s and 40s, were rhythmically driven sonic explorations that drew on instruments from the concert hall, military bands, and international musical traditions, as well as found objects like flowerpots and brake drums. In recent decades, the repertoire for percussion ensemble has exploded, as has the presence of these ensembles on concert series and festivals. A strong role for pitched percussion instruments such as vibraphone and marimba, combined with the versatility of modern percussionists, who learn how to play a variety of instruments from around the world, has created opportunities for enthusiastic composers, both classical and non-classical, to explore and express themselves with this family of instruments. A growing number of percussion ensembles are commissioning new works and thereby building the repertoire of the future.

Today we have seven, relatively short works. All were written by living composers, five of whom are women, and several were commissioned by TCP.  

Andrea Venet (b. 1983)
Bulldog (2021)
Performance time: 5’

Andrea Venet

Venet is a percussion artist, educator, and composer specializing in contemporary and classical genres. As an international soloist, chamber musician, and clinician, she maintains an active performance schedule in Europe, Japan, Canada, and Trinidad.

In discussing the work. Venet explains, “Bulldog” is inspired by my beloved English bulldog Shosti, who has been surrounded by drums and percussion sounds her whole life. The content of the piece is based on paradiddles (fundamental four-note drum patterns) in various forms, and includes rhythmic grooves and patterns that represent things I associate with the bulldog “freestyle”. Within paradiddle groupings of different lengths, there are variations of voicing, sticking, and patterns. One versatile thing about paradiddle language are the funky grooves that emerge when extracting one voice/hand, especially when juxtaposing over a contrasting but steady pulse. Like an English bulldog, the piece is intended to be fun, sturdy, thick, short and sweet!” Here is a link to a performance of this work.

Ivan Trevino (b. 1983)
Watercolor Sun (2023)
Performance time: 5’

Ivan Trevino

Trevino is a Mexican-American composer, percussionist, teacher and arts advocate. Trevino is also known for his work as a drummer with Break of Reality, an international touring cello rock quartet. As a member of that ensemble, Ivan was selected as a music ambassador by the U.S. State Department during the Obama administration.

Watercolor Sun was commissioned by TCP and is performed on one single 4.3 octave marimba. Trevino adds, “There are moments in life that create a feeling I can’t quite describe. There’s a jovial, euphoric feeling I get when I catch the sunrise with my family, and I feel it when I play music too. Maybe it is gratitude, or peace, or something in between. Whatever this feeling is, it is at the heart of Watercolor Sun.” Here is a link to a performance of this work.

Jessie Montgomery (b. 1981)
Study No. 1 (2023)
Performance time: 8’

Jessie Montgomery

Montgomery is a Grammy-winning composer, violinist, and educator whose work interweaves classical music with elements of vernacular music, improvisation, poetry, and social consciousness. In June 2024, she concluded a three-year term as the Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s Mead Composer-in-Residence.

Montgomery notes, “Study No. 1 for percussion quartet is my first work for percussion ensemble with the aim of exploring a wide range of timbres within a somewhat confined instrumentation. Each player’s setup has at most four individual instruments using various implements to create a spectrum of sound from rounded and chorale-like to metallic, bright, and playful. There are three main sections, the heart of which is inspired by marching band cadences, bookended by sections that are inspired by the West African “talking drum” in which various types of pitch bending and speech-like rhythmic patterns are explored.” Here is a link to a performance of this work.

Jlin (b. 1987)
“Derivative” from Perspective (2020)
Performance time: 5’

Jlin

Jlin has become one of the most distinctive composers in America and one of the most influential women in electronic music.

Her seven-movement work Perspective was written for TCP through a highly collaborative process. After exploring and sampling instruments from TCP’s collection of percussion sounds at their Chicago studio, she created an electronic version of each of the work’s seven movements using these samples and other sounds from her own library. The members of Third Coast Percussion then set about determining how to realize these pieces in live performance. Diving into each of the audio tracks, the percussionists found dozens of sonic layers, patterns that never seem to repeat when one would expect them to, and outrageous sounds that are hard to imagine recreating acoustically. Even typical percussion sounds like snare drum, hi-hat, or kick drum exist in multiple variations, subtle timbral shades in counterpoint or composite sounds. In pursuit of the broad expressive range of Jlin’s original tracks, TCP’s performance version incorporates mixing bowls filled with water, bird calls, gongs and tambourines. Jlin named her piece Perspective as a reference to this unique collaborative process, that this work would exist in two forms, the same music as interpreted through different artists and their modes of expression. Click here for a link to a performance of this work.

Ayanna Woods (b. 1992)
Double Drum Dutch (2022)
Performance time: 5’

Ayanna Woods

Woods is a Grammy-nominated performer, composer and bandleader from Chicago. Her music explores the spaces between acoustic and electronic, traditional and esoteric, wildly improvisational and mathematically rigorous. A collaborator across genres and forms, her work spans new music, theater, film scoring, arranging, songwriting, and improvisation. As a gigging musician, she is a sought-after bassist and improvisor.

Woods was a participant in TCP’s 2017 Currents Creative Partnership. TCP later approached her again for a new work, which she titled Double Drum Dutch. “I was inspired by the way drumline tom melodies scramble from place to place, the way kids play together on a playground. Like the best hand-clapping games, there’s a feeling of being chaotic and very coordinated at the same time. The patterns grow and grow until they get too unwieldy; they burst and have to become something else!” Here is a link to a performance of this work.

Augusta Read Thomas (b. 1964)
Resounding Earth, mvt 2: “Prayer” (2012)
Performance time: 9’

Augusta Read Thomas

Augusta Read Thomas was Mead Composer-in-Residence with the Chicago Symphony, and is University Professor at The University of Chicago. She was named a Chicagoan of the Year in 2016. She is also founder of the University of Chicago’s Center for Contemporary Composition, a dynamic, collaborative, and interdisciplinary environment for the creation, performance and study of new music.

Resounding Earth is scored for four percussionists playing bells and bell-like instruments from a wide variety of cultures and historical periods. The piece was conceived as a cultural statement celebrating interdependence and commonality across all cultures; and as a musical statement celebrating the extraordinary beauty and diversity of expression inherent in bell sounds. Bells can be used to celebrate grand occasions, hold sacrificial rites, keep a record of events, give the correct time, celebrate births and weddings, mark funerals, caution a community, enhance any number of religious ceremonies, and are even hung around the necks of animals. Click here for a link to a performance of this work.

David Skidmore (b. 1982)
Ritual Music (2004)
Performance time: 6’

David Skidmore

TCP member David Skidmore has composed music for film, dance, commercial music libraries, and live performance. In 2021, he was nominated for a GRAMMY Award for Best Contemporary Classical Composition along with the other members of Third Coast Percussion and collaborators Clarice Assad and Sérgio Assad, for their album “Archetypes.”

Ritual Music was written for the Chicago dance company Raizel Performances, and was premiered in 2005. It became a staple of TCP’s repertoire when the quartet was formed that same year. TCP has performed this work regularly as part of its flagship education program, introducing students to the timbral, melodic, and rhythmic elements of percussion music. This “overture for percussion” was conceived as variations on the numbers 2 and 4; in contrast to the raw energy of the music’s character in performance, the pitch content in the marimba, rhythmic motifs, and the structure of phrases were all determined numerically. Click here for a link to a performance of this work.

—Program Notes by Louise K. Smith
With thanks to Rob Dillon (TCP founding ensemble member)