Sentient Weather

for percussion quintet

Sentient Weather was written in early 2008 for the New World Percussion Consort directed by Michael Linville.

Read program notes

*New World Percussion Consort, Lincoln Theatre - Miami Beach February 28, 2009.

.Sergio Carreno, Michael Israelievitch, Jacob Nissly, Joseph Petrasek, Eric Renick

Michael Linville, conductor.

SETUP

All players play the following instruments:

1 Large log drum each: these drums should have a maximum of two pitches, and should match each other as closely as possible. Indeterminate differentiation is acceptable.

4 Toms (20 total): floor, low, mid, high.

2 Cymbals each - 1 of which should be a sizzle-cymbal.

1 Cowbell each - as little pitch differentiation as possible.

3 cheap, thin metal pots each (large, mid, small), suspended and containing about an inch of water.

1 Bongo pair each - the pair should be tuned approximately a minor third apart, and each bongo pair should be detuned by approximately a quarter - tone with player one having the highest pitched pair, player 2 the next highest, etc.

1 brake-drum each, tuned as closely as possible.

In addition the individual players play the following:

Player 1: 1 timbale pair, 2 woodblocks.

Player 2: Zildjian earth-plate (or the equivalent),

Player 3: 1 large taiko (if not possible a gran casa can be substituted and tuned to eliminate as much decay as possible), 1 32-inch timp., hi-hat (12 or 13 inch, no larger), 1 Zildjian earth-plate (or the equivalent).

Player 4: 1 large water-gong, 1 Zildjian earth-plate (or the equivalent).

Player 5: 1 djembe pair, as small as possible, 1 Zildjian earth-plate (or the equivalent).

PROGRAM NOTES FOR THE PREMIERE PERFORMANCE

by Thomas May

Long-time followers of the New World Symphony might recall some encounters with themusic of Shaun Naidoo back in the 1990s. Michael Linville and the NWS Percussion Consort introduced two works by the South Africa born composer then: The Night of the Dancing Armies in 1997 and in 1999, Bad Times Coming, which Naidoo reworked from an electronic piece into a concerto for piano and percussion..

Naidoo,who settled in California in 1990 (where he teaches at the Chapman University Conservatory ofMusic), is back with this brand-new composition for the Percussion Consort. In the past decade, much of his work has involved electroacoustic experimentation—Blood on the Pattern for alto sax and electronics and Evil Mbira Music for nine MIDI-triggered toy pianos are two more examples of his fancifully titled pieces—but more recently, Naidoo decided to undergo a period of “electronic abstinence” and to abandon working with determined pitch as well. Sentient Weather represents the first outcome of this new compositional direction.

It also adds to that distinguished sub-genre of musical works inspired while traveling across the American landscape. Naidoo recalls that the initial inspiration for SentientWeather was sparked by an experience he shared with his wife (pianistVicki Ray,who premiered his concerto Bad Times Coming with the Percussion Consort) while driving from Montana to Los Angeles a few summers ago. “We were working our way through the Central Valley of Utah near Salt Lake City,” says Naidoo,“when a group of tremendous thunderstorms surrounded us—there were five or six completely different thunderstorms raging in the distance.” Naidoo began to wonder how that image of “independent but interacting weather systems”might be captured in auditory terms.“Even though they were independent, they seemed to share a singular sense of purpose, as if there was an intelligence behind them—hence the sentient of the title.”

Vicki Ray suggested this naturally suggested the formof a work for percussion ensemble. He originally considered using the more standard configuration of a percussion quartet but then realized a full quintet of players would be necessary to embody the full spatial sensibility of the piece, which draws on masses of sound that are made to bounce back and forth from player to player. The score lays out how the five percussionists should be set up “as far from each other as possible.” This enables maximal realization of the spatial component to Sentient Weather, whose whizzing currents of sound Naidoo compares to a Doppler effect-like motion.

Working with his image of each of the five players as an independent “weather system,” Naidoo initially planned to give each a distinctive set of instruments. “The piece turned out to be exactly the opposite,” he points out, in that he decided the effect would register more clearly if the ensemble played more homogenous textures—for example, the sound of log drums dominates in the first couple of minutes. As a result, Naidoo has all the musicians play the same basic complement of instruments (log drums, tomtoms cymbals, cowbells, thin metal pots filled with water, bongos, and brake-drums). At the same time, several additional instruments are unique to each individual player (woodblocks, djembe, or the special-effects cymbals known as “earth-plates,” for example).

Sentient Weather plays out as a series of larger gestures that are related and grow out of each other (the log drumgesture that opens the piece and recurs at various intervals is one of these,which segues into a contrasting, extremely loud and rapid gesture of cymbals and tom-toms). Naidoo notes that while there is some evidence of highly rhythmic patterns based on African techniques (a signature of his earlier music), the sense of grand gestures predominates, working as “a kind of dynamic wedge, within which there are other layers happening.”

The avoidance of pitch reference also foregrounds the role of timbre in the interplay of the ensemble (pitches do occur, but as artifacts rather than deliberate choices). Naidoo was struck after composing the piece by the similarities to what happens in György Ligeti’s earlier music, where the ear can no longer pick out individual lines, instead becoming attuned to the larger textures they produce. In the final minutes of Sentient Weather, Naidoo introduces the paradox that highly structured rhythms played against eachother begin to produce an impression of entropy and chaos.“We move from a very structured chaos in the final gesture into total bedlam,” Naidoo explains.“In a sense, this is the final merging of the systems.”

--Thomas May