Youngstown State University Percussion Ensemble
Dr. Glenn Schaft - Director
Butler Institute of American Art
Personnel
Nathaniel Adams Petersburg, OH
Terence Boggs Warren, OH
Michael Daniels Fostoria, OH
Owen Davis Vienna, OH
Stephen Dorbish Canfield, OH
Jo’El Harrison Farrell, PA
Brandon Maffitt Warren, OH
Evan McCreary Poland, OH
About the YSU Percussion Ensemble
Notable performances include the 2018 Percussive Arts Society International Convention in Indianapolis, Percussive Arts Society Ohio Chapter Days of Percussion at Capital University, Ohio Northern University, Youngstown State University, and Ohio Music Education Association Conferences in Cleveland, Columbus, and Cincinnati. A central part of our mission involves collaborations with composers in the commissioning, premiering, and critically acclaimed recording of their works. Our 2005 release "Dark Wood" includes six premiere recordings and commissions. Our commission project with New York City-based percussionist/composer John Hollenbeck on his "Ziggurat" for five percussionists and four saxophonists, was premiered at the Whitney Museum of Contemporary Art in New York City, and is available on his 2008 release "Rainbow Jimmies." The Youngstown Percussion Collective's 2012 release "Forms Of Things Unknown" is a concert-length suite by YSU professor of jazz studies, bass, and composition, Dr. Dave Morgan. Our 2012 recording of Ron Coulter's "Cajon Trio" will appear on an upcoming 2019 Coulter CD release.
Dining Room Music (1983)
Rupert Kettle (b.1940)
Appetizer
Fable
Mountain Song
Dessert
Dining Room Music was written as counterpoint to John Cage's 1940 composition Living Room Music. No instruments are specified , only suggestions made as to objects found in an ordinary dining room. Notes by Ruppert Kettle.
"Fable" sets in rhythmic speech the Phyllis Stein text:
Happily ever after the world is flat
Don't you fall off and go ker-splat.
La Spagnola (ca. 1892)
Vincenzo Di Chiara (1864-1937)
Arr. Ruth Jeanne
Akadinda Trio (2002)
Emmanuel Sejourne (b. 1961)
Inspired by the percussive balafon (xylophone) music of Uganda, melo-rhythmic lines interlock to form an interesting polyrhythmic (3:2, etc.) texture. Emmanuel Sejourne is one of the world's leading mallet percussionists, active as a teacher, performer, and composer. He is a member of the music faculty at the Strasbourg Conservatory in France where he has developed a unique course of study for advanced mallet percussionists. Notes by Glenn Schaft
Traditional Rudimental Snare Drum Pieces
Traditional
Arr. Guy Gauthreux (b.1956)
The Three Camps
The Downfall of Paris
Connecticut Halftime
The relationship between percussion and military organizations goes back many centuries, including the Jannissary music of the ancient Turks, and is widespread throughout Europe and beyond. Such military drumming traditions were perhaps most highly developed in Britain and Switzerland and were brought to early America. During the Revolutionary and Civil War periods, part of the drummers' responsibilities was to play pieces that contained sections knows as "beats." The beats, or "duty," were heard by all members of the camp and such duty's are heard in "The Three Camps". Soldiers were responsible for knowing and understanding the different beats and were expected to act upon these commands.
Rudimental drumming is loud, and the "open" style of executing the "rudiments" (patterns) needed to be clearly audible at great distances. The large rope-tensioned snare drums of its early traditions are a direct precursor to the contemporary marching band and drum corps instruments. In Early America, snare drums were also accompanied by fifes that played melodies and such a tradition is still demonstrated in Colonial Williamsburg, Virginia. Notes by Glenn Schaft
Omphalo Centric Lecture (1984)
Nigel Westlake (b. 1958)
The title comes from a painting by Paul Klee - the direct & centered simplicity of which was an inspiration to me during the writing of this piece. The piece also owes much to African balafon (xylophone) music, with its persistent ostinati, cross-rhythms & variations on simple melodic fragments. Like African music it seeks to celebrate life through rhythm, energy & movement. It was originally composed for the Sydney based percussion quartet Synergy. Notes by the composer.
