THEATRICAL MUSIC FOR SOLO PERCUSSION

The act of playing percussion is innately theatrical. The motions by which a percussionist plays his instruments often resemble a carefully choreographed dance. Our bodies are freed from having to hold or blow into an instrument. We are free to move to and from our instruments, to change our facial expressions, and to vocalize. This performance dissertation consists of three recitals featuring theatrical music for solo percussion. The selections are limited to works in which the composer instructs the solo percussion performer to perform in an extra-musical capacity, whether it be by singing, speaking, moving, acting, dancing, or any other action. On all three recitals, I performed established works for solo theatrical percussion. However, on the first recital, I also played the world premiere performance of The Authors, a new work by Stuart Saunders Smith. This half-hour long marimba opera requires the solo performer to speak, sing, and act while playing the marimba. For the final recital, I featured pieces commissioned from two professional composers, John Leupold II and Daniel Adams. Through this series, I hope to both pay tribute to existing great works and to encourage new composition of solo theatrical percussion music.

Martulus e a questão polimétrica

O presente trabalho foi realizado como parte integrante do mestrado em música da Escola Superior de Música de Lisboa (ESML), e procurou explorar a utilização de “novos ritmos” (Belling, 2010), sobretudo a polimetria em uma peça para piano e percussão intitulada de “Martulus”, com pequena influência de células rítmicas afro-brasileiras e composta durante o último semestre do mestrado. A polimétrica realiza-se na peça sobrepondo, em vários momentos, os diferentes instrumentos em compassos diferentes uns dos outros o que resulta no fato de as barras de compassos por vezes não serem simétricas e o primeiro tempo do compasso acontecer em vários momentos diferentes, os instrumentos que utilizam duas claves, como o piano e a marimba, puderam utilizar às vezes de compassos diferentes em cada clave de forma sobreposta. A peça termina com o compasso de 0/8 e sem barras de compasso, o 8 do denominador faz alusão as colcheias que passa a ser a única forma de guia para os instrumentistas e ausência de primeiro tempo deixando a música suspensa sem acentos implícitos. A peça foi composta para 7 instrumentistas e 7 instrumentos; piano, marimba, tímpano, bumbo grande, caixa, congas, bongôs, e da forma como foi escrita um mesmo percussionista não pode tocar mais do que um instrumento.

Compatibility of grafting in the melon cv. bônus No. 2, and effects on production

Twelve rootstocks were evaluated: 1) pumpkin 'Big Power' (Cucurbita ntoschata); 2) pumpkin 'Seca' (Cucurbita moschata); 3) bottle gourd 'Longa' (Lagenaria siceraria); 4) 'Cachi' (Lagenaria siceraria); 5) bottle gourd 'Marimba' (Lagenaria siceraria); 6) 'Mogango' (Cucurbita maxima); 7) pumpkin 'Kirameki' (Cucurbita moschata); 8) pumpkin 'Caravela' (Cucurbita moschata); 9) pumpkin 'Shelper' (Cucurbita moschata); 10) 'Gherkin' (Cucumis anguria); 11) 'Loofah' (Luffa cylindrica); and 12) pumpkin 'Goianinha' (Cucurbita moschata) with respect to compatibility with melon yield, and the production and quality of fruits from cv. Bônus No. 2, non-grafted and grafted with 9 of these rootstocks (1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 7, 9, 10 and 11). The bottle gourd 'Marimba' provided the highest percentage of grafting success between the vine and rootstock. The rootstocks 1, 2, 3, 4 and 7 did not differ from bottle gourd 'Marimba', therefore also indicating good compatibility with the melon cv. Bônus No. 2. For height of the plants, it was shown in the first evaluation that rootstock 5 produced a greater height of the plant, differing only from rootstocks 7, 8, 9, 10 and 11 and non-grafted cv. Bônus No. 2. In the second evaluation, 'Big Power' showed the greatest value for height of the plant, differing only from combinations with 'Cachi', 'Mogango', 'Shelper' and 'Loofah'. With regard to number of leaves, in the first evaluation rootstocks 3, 4 and 6 had the greatest number of leaves, but in the second 4, 9 and 11 had the greatest. For dry weight of the stem, the greatest value was obtained with 'Mogango' in the first evaluation and with 'Big Power' in the second. For leaf area of the plants, a difference was found among the treatments only in the first evaluation, where the combination with bottle gourd 'Longa' showed a greater leaf area, but did not differ from the combinations with rootstocks 1, 4, 5 and 6. Differences were demonstrated among the treatments only for the transverse diameter of the fruit, where the combination with rootstock bottle gourd 'Marimba' showed the greatest value, differing only from the combination with 'Gherkin'. There were no significant differences for the mean longitudinal diameter, pulp thickness and total soluble solids among the treatments studied.

datos.bne.es: A library linked dataset

We describe the datos.bne.es library dataset. The dataset makes available the authority and bibliography catalogue from the Biblioteca Nacional de España (BNE, National Library of Spain) as Linked Data. The catalogue contains around 7 million authority and bibliographic records. The records in MARC 21 format were transformed to RDF and modelled using IFLA (International Federation of Library Associations) ontologies and other well-established vocabularies such as RDA (Resource Description and Access) or the Dublin Core Metadata Element Set. A tool named MARiMbA automatized the RDF generation process and the data linkage to DBpedia and other library linked data resources such as VIAF (Virtual International Authority File) or GND (Gemeinsame Normdatei, the authority dataset from the German National Library).

What's the Matter with Extended Techniques? Getting Beyond the Stigma in the Horn and Percussion Repertoire

For this project I prepared a series of recitals featuring music for horn and percussion, in which the horn part featured extended horn techniques. For this project, I considered anything beyond the open or muted horn an extended technique. These techniques range from the common hand-stopped note passages to complex new techniques involving half-valves, multi-phonics, and more, for new sounds desired by the composer. There are several pieces written for solo horn and percussion, with ensembles ranging from simple duets to solo horn with a full percussion ensemble. However, few include extended techniques for the horn. All of these select pieces are lesser known because of their difficulty, primarily because of the challenge of the extended techniques requested by the composer. In the introduction to this paper I give a brief background to the project, where the current repertoire stands, and my experiences with commissioning works for this genre. I then give a brief history and how-to on the more common extended techniques, which were found in almost every piece. I separated these techniques so that they could be referenced in the performance notes without being extremely repetitive in their description. Then follows the main performance notes of the repertoire chosen, which includes a brief description of the piece itself and a longer discussion for performers and composers who wish to learn more about these techniques. In this section my primary focus is the extended techniques used and I provide score samples with permission to further the education of the next musicians to tackle this genre. All works performed for this project were recorded and accompany this paper in the Digital Repository at the University of Maryland (DRUM). The following works were included in this project: o Howard J. Buss, Dreams from the Shadows (2015) o Howard J. Buss, Night Tide (1995) o George Crumb, An Idyll for the Misbegotten, trans. Robert Patterson (1986/1997) o Charles Fernandez, Metamorphosis: A Horn’s Life, “Prenatal and Toddler” (2016, unfinished) o Helen Gifford, Of Old Angkor (1995) o Douglas Hill, Thoughtful Wanderings… (1990) o Pierre-Yves Level, Duetto pour Cor en Fa et Percussion (1999) o David Macbride, Elegy for Horn and Timpani (2009) o Brian Prechtl, A Song of David (1995) o Verne Reynolds, HornVibes (1986) o Pablo Salazar, Cincontar (2016) o Mark Schultz, Dragons in the Sky (1989) o Faye-Ellen Silverman, Protected Sleep (2007) o Charles Taylor, Sonata for Horn and Marimba (1991) o Robert Wolk, Tessellations (2016) With this project, I intend to promote these pieces and the techniques used to encourage more works written in this style, and reveal to fellow horn players that the techniques should not prevent these great works from being performed. Due to the lack of repertoire, I successfully commissioned new pieces featuring extended techniques, which were featured in the final recital.