Solo Percussion [by Lewis Saul]

I was 11 or 12 and my quality time with my father was Sunday afternoons at the Pittsburgh Symphony with William Steinberg in the old Syria Mosque:

I was already deep into classical music, and I can still remember the intense joy I felt in communing with Dad about the only thing that mattered to me at that time.

One concert, Dad was perusing the program and stopped at the symphony roster and pointed to a name under Percussion -- Eddie Myers -- and said that he was a cousin. As the orchestra prepared to play something with a lot of percussion (it might have been Rimsky-Korsakov's Scheherazade), he pointed him out to me -- he was playing the triangle.

At Intermission, we would go into the smoking lounge and he'd order a scotch and I'd have a Coke. We were discussing the music, and Dad said something like:

"Gee, that Eddie sure has it easy. He gets paid just to bang on that little triangle ... anyone could do that!"

 

Now I didn't normally "talk back" to my father -- but with a trace of outrage in my voice, I told him that percussionists were great musicians, who studied just as hard as a violinist ... he seemed unpersuaded, so by the time we got home, I had a plan:

I was really into Stockhausen (whom I wrote about here recently) and I pulled out my score and record to Zyklus (I wish we had had YouTube back then):

 

He was amazed (and had such a wonderful open mind about new music) ... we talked about how percussionists have to learn more than just one instrument -- they must master dozens or even hundreds of different types of drums, cymbals -- not to mention all the mallet instruments (xylophone, marimba, glockenspiel).

 

Ultimately, he complimented me for teaching him a lesson about glibness!

**

Fast-forward to me being a dad.

My violinist daughter married a percussionist -- and he is as badass a musician as I've ever known! We talk music together and our conversations are always magically inspirational!

So speaking of solo percussion pieces, I recently came across a young composer -- Rebecca Saunders -- who wrote this piece for solo percussion called Dust.

I hope you enjoy it as much as I do. Performed by Rebecca Lloyd-Jones:

Comments

[Peter Frank]

I presume the recording of nr. 9 Zyklus you had in hand was Time Records S-8001, featuring Christoph Caskel. On September 8 (or 15) 1962 my father played that record on the stereo. I was thunderstruck (with a thunder stick?). My growing interest in modern classical music took a sudden left turn. Percussion music -- Balllet Mécanique, Ionisation, Double Music -- led to electronic music, Charles Ives led to Henry Cowell (and back again). And everything led to John Cage...