KORI BARKLEY
Staff Writer
Ethos New Music Society kicked off its 15th Newsound Festival with the “vibrant” and “superb” Third Coast Percussion ensemble this past week.
Hailed as groundbreaking for their expansion of the percussion repertoire, “Third Coast Percussion explores and expands the extraordinary sonic possibilities of the percussion repertoire through performances, teaching and the creation of new works,” according to their website.
Originating in 2005, the group consists of David Skidmore, Robert Dillon, Peter Martin and Sean Connors.
Emerging in new media, Third Coast Percussion has free iPad and iPhone apps that offer a new kind of immersion for their audiences with sampled sounds of Third Coast Percussion’s instruments, information about instruments, ability to record personal sounds and playback qualities.
The two-day residency in Fredonia included a master class, lecture and performance in which Third Coast Percussion collaborated with student composers and percussionists alike, spoke about commissioning music and demonstrated their exceptional percussive abilities.
Thursday’s master class was unusual to some. As student percussion ensembles performed student-composed pieces for Third Coast in Mason Hall room 1080, the audience experienced it from a satellite setup — “a performance in the round, but -ish,” as Rob Deemer, the faculty advisor of Ethos, described it. Between each piece, the audience members had to rotate their chairs to accommodate each ensemble being set up around the perimeter of room 1080. Visuals of the score were also projected on a screen.
Both composers and percussionists were enlightened by Third Coast’s extensive musical knowledge. They touched on subjects of expanding color palates by thinking of adjectives while performing, increasing communication via instrument positioning and overcoming technicalities on the page to enhance the true nature or character of pieces.
“I found their advice to be incredibly valuable simply because they’re making a living doing exactly what I’m here studying,” Alec Dube, percussion graduate assistant, said. “They perform, tour, compose and develop as musicians as their job and, to me, anyone who can be successful in today’s music scene has a good perspective on how to perform. After the master class, I felt like I had a new perspective on playing chamber music.”
During Friday’s lecture, Third Coast explained the commissioning process and the importance of communication as music constantly evolves through performances and experimentation.
“Collaboration is very important for a successful commission,” Skidmore explained. “Collaboration between percussionists and composers is crucial because as there is very little percussion music today, instrumentation, notation, choreography, sounds and [aspects of the like] are often unconventional and can be difficult to comprehend.”
Third Coast noted their most successful commission as “Resounding Earth,” by Grammy award-winning composer Augusta Read Thomas. They performed the four-movement work during a vibrant program on Friday evening that left Rosch wanting more.
Scored for four percussionists playing more than 500 metallic instruments and bells from a wide variety of cultures and historical periods, “Resounding Earth” represents the celebration of cultural interdependence and commonality. As bells are often used to celebrate grand occasions, hold sacrificial rights, give time of day, caution a community and are even hung around the necks of animals, Thomas wanted each movement to represent and explore the extraordinary beauty and expression of the bell sounds.
It was certainly a visual experience for the audience as well as an auditory experience.
“They are exceptional performers who really know how to engage an audience,” said Alan Hankers, senior composition major. “The music that they programmed, including works written by members within the ensemble, are inventive in a lot of ways. I was particularly impressed by how many different sound colors they were able to draw out of only metallic sources in ‘Resounding Earth.’ It was an incredible concert.”
The remainder of the program was influenced by minimalist aspects. Truly resounding throughout the recital hall, Third Coast’s performance portrayed the array of characters and moods they had proclaimed so imperative during the masterclass.
“Shi” (meaning “food” in Chinese) by Alexandre Lunsqui was composed as an exploration of sound. Utilizing various objects often found in an Asian kitchen such as bamboo sushi mats, glass bottles and small metal barbeque grills, Connors, Dillon and Skidmore performed the delicate — but lively — song with chopsticks.
The ensemble was unbelievably in tune with each other, personally and musically. This was evident as they expressed they were having a lot of fun performing, maneuvering around each other during performances and never missing a beat.