Sean and I have a little ritual to keep ourselves honest when we play Nutcrackers. The show requires that each of us (the percussionists) stand up and sit down many, many times over the course of several hours. It becomes a game to try to nail each one of those self-contained micro-performances — as if they were shot attempts in a basketball game.
Before each show we put out a bag of Sour Patch Kids. Nail an entrance, get a Kid. Any imperfections, sit down in shame.
Today I’m excited to share a really fun talk (not in any way Nutcracker-related) that Sean and I did in fall 2022 for the supporters of his “Rocket City New Music” series in Huntsville. The group had just commissioned a new work from me, Launch Party, which got its premiere the next day.
I had been pretty nervous to do this kind of thing in advance, but Sean and I had a rapport from working together in the past so I gave it a go, with a bag of Sour Patch Kids out for encouragement. Everyone ended up having a great time! — it gave me a really nice chance to introduce my work as a percussionist and composer and some of my ideas about music.
Discussed in this interview:
Performer origin story, aka — “Can music be sports? And if so… how do we tailgate?” — Drum & bugle corps, the richness of unison playing, and “clean vs dirty” in music.
Composing electronic music with marching percussion.
The blank canvas of electronic music, and the challenge of staying focused in the temptation of endless new music tech.
Why write music that isn’t for people? Conlon Nancarrow and working behind closed doors.
What would a drum corps kid think of equal temperament vs just intonation?
Demonstration: rhythm becomes pitch
Demonstration: introduction to pitch visualization on lattices.
A fun introduction to the NASA audio sample library, and how I used the sounds in Launch Party.
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The video of this interview is at Rocket City New Music’s YouTube channel.
Thanks to Sean Ritenauer, Hojoon Kim, and Rocket City New Music for hosting this event and for the audio/video recording.
Media referenced in this interview:
A Little Talk