Elliott Carter, Nicolaus A. Huber, Mauricio Kagel, Younghi Pagh-Paan, Peter Eötvös, Iannis Xenakis, Toshio Hosokawa: Isao Nakamura plays works for solo percussion

ISAO NAKAMURA PLAYS SOLO WORKS FOR DRUMS

The pieces selected here have a few things in common:
1. Melody instruments that traditionally dominate virtuoso percussion (marimba, xylophone, vibraphone...) are not used, but – apart from the timpani – rather the noisy ones.
2. None of the composers submitted to the dogmas of strict serialism.
3. Most of the compositions also represent at least a cultural-political message.

Elliot Carter
Saëta and  Improvisation (out Eight Pieces for Four Timpani)

Initially as pure compositional studies, the unpublished 1949/50 Six Pieces for kettle drums, including the two pieces recorded here Saëta and  Improvisation. Carter was tempted to develop the widest possible range of expressive possibilities from extremely limited starting material - with four timpani only as many fixed pitches and a maximum of two voices - with a focus, of course, on the rhythmic. Here he refined the so-called "metrical modulation": This technique was to become groundbreaking for his highly complex music, which then always played simultaneously on different time layers. It allows controlled – on the level of notation as well as performance – mutually related, but nevertheless independent, successive changes in speed. In 1966 Carter, with the help of percussionist Jan Williams, revised the collection, dedicating two new pieces for pedal timpani to him, thus printing the set, the pieces of which had previously only circulated in manuscript form. A maximum of four of the eight pieces should be played in a program.

I. Saëta: The title goes back to a kind of improvised Andalusian song in which an arrow (saëta) was shot into the clouds during a rain ritual transformed into an Easter procession.
V. Improvisation: A study of tempo modulation based on the overlapping of accelerating and decelerating material. By the way, as with Saëta, nothing is improvised here!
(From Carter's Notes on the Works)

Nicolaus A Huber
the same is not the same

The Passau composer Nicolaus A. Huber dealt intensively with Marxist dialectics and in the 1970s produced e.g. developed his »conceptual rhythmic composition«. One means of doing this is alienation: Pitch notes are often treated like rhythm instruments, which of course is not the case in the present piece. »Instead of this inner contrast, there is the tension between the different uses of the drum and the relatively large number of treatment elements that remain the same. […] The snare drum is to be seen within an ancient and complex drumming culture. Various aspects of the richness of this culture, both in terms of social use and the variety of playing technique and expression, form the basis of compositional technique. However, not in a mere citing way - that would be unhistorical - but on the contrary: The progressive, as far as I see it in our social relations, is fully discoverable, because 'the same is not the same'" (NA Huber). The alienation is thus transferred “to the most diverse – from dance-like to military – semantic connotations of the snare drum” (Frank Sielecki). "Different kinds of mallets, palms, fingers and fingernails are used in the game, and the performer also has to whistle" (Isao Nakamura).

Maurice Kagel
Black  (out exotic)

exotic is designed for six musicians and a conductor. Each player uses at least ten different, freely selectable, non-European instruments whose authentic playing style he has only partially mastered. The instrumental parts are notated without pitches. At the same time, the players must perform a vocal part, notated in relative pitch. Its text can »either be freely improvised or determined during rehearsals. In accordance with the tendency of the piece, it would be appropriate to undertake the articulation in imitation of non-European languages« (Mauricio Kagel). A certain situation comedy, but also the tendency to caricature are thus inevitable. From the sections A–E of the work, D contains seven solos, which are also – individually or simultaneously – under the title Exotica: solos can be listed. Isao Nakamura plays section from it D₅.

Younghi Pagh Paan
Ta Ryong IV

In 1991, the Korean composer, who had lived in Germany for a long time, was asked to contribute to the Graz symposium »Reappropriation and Redetermination – The Case of ›Postmodernism‹ in Music«, where this discussion was taken to the point of absurdity. Instead, the solo piece was created Ta Ryong IV. “Basically, it stems from neo-colonialist behavior when the musician believes that everything that the world and history have produced is simply at his personal disposal, that he can use it freely. Without respect for cultural identities, it leads […] to a new, comprehensive claim to cultural power: ›We take it over‹. [...] In my little piece I tried to take some archaic rhythmic elements of our Korean folk music very closely - shamanic rituals are also important for us [...] and to further develop these differentiated realities in an enlightened way" (Younghi Pagh-Paan ).

Peter Eötvos
Thunder (out Triangle)

In 1993 Peter Eötvös composed the 10-movement action piece Triangle "...for a creative percussionist and 27 instruments", which offers the soloist plenty of room for free improvisation, but also expects both fixed and spontaneous reactions from the four-part ensemble: Jazz may have served as a model here, but so do cadential techniques used in the Solo concerts used to be taken for granted. The 6th movement semifinals, contains a cadenza for a bass timpani. On it and on other solo material Triangle based Thunder - specifically tailored to the pedal timpani's ability to quickly and precisely change pitches up to an octave range. 'The title says it all. While between two and ten timpani are used in the symphony orchestra, what is special about this piece is that only one pedal timpani is played here – and finally the timpani has a chance to distinguish itself as a solo instrument” (Peter Eötvös).

Iannis Xenakis
Rebounds

The word "rebond" means "rebound". The piece consists of an A and a B part, which are to be played consecutively, but in a freely chosen order. The A section uses seven drums, so only skin/skin instruments. In the B part, five skin instruments and five wood blocks are required. This separation according to materials was already encountered in the ensemble piece Pleiades (1978). As always, Xenakis' composition is based on complicated mathematical concepts. the golden section plays a role – which then evoke a peculiar, archaic world of sound. Isao Nakamura is reminiscent of ancient buildings. The virtuosity of Rebounds goes to the limits of what is feasible and has meanwhile made the work the dreaded compulsory piece at competitions.

Toshio Hosokawa
Sen VI

»Sen, which usually means line in Japanese, here stands for brush strokes in Far Eastern calligraphy and Indian ink painting. […] Brushstrokes draw their expressiveness from the emptiness in the background. The calligrapher necessarily balances this emptiness with his brushstrokes. The empty space suggests a world that cannot be drawn and remains invisible, whose sounds do not reach our ears. He refers to a realm of the unreal and of dreams, to the unconscious, which harbors unlimited human potential. Empty space is a hidden womb of natural energies that hides our deepest possibilities« (Toshio Hosokawa). Accordingly, the score mainly contains silence and, in preparation for the sparse sound events, precise gestural instructions, to a certain extent enlargements of the brushstrokes mentioned above.

Martin Blaumeiser