Theatrical Music for Solo Percussion Acknowledgments

Acknowledgments Recorded in Dekelboum Concert Hall, Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center, University of Maryland – College Park, 2012-2013

Recorded and mastered by Antonino D’Urzo (Opusrite™, [email protected])

Daniel Adams’ Of a Just Content (ASCAP) is available directly from the composer: dcadams@ airmail.net; Georges Aperghis’ Le Corps à Corps is published by Boosey & Hawkes and is avail- Lee Hinkle, percussion & voice able from his website: www.aperghis.com; Lee Hinkle’s Vibratissimo (ASCAP) music is published by Octopus Press and is available from his website: www.leehinkle.com; Stuart Saunders Smith’s The Authors and Tunnels are published by Smith Publications: www.smith-publications.com.

Special thanks to my parents Ross and Nona Hinkle and my sister Valerie Hinkle for their con- tinued love and support. Special thanks to my wife Kristen for her steadfast love, support, help Theatrical Music for with French pronunciations, and for generally putting up with all of the “weird” music that I play. Thanks to Daniel Adams, Georges Aperghis, and Stuart Saunders Smith for their beautiful music Solo Percussion that encompasses this CD. Additionally, thanks to the many people and organizations without whom this CD would not have been possible: Robert McCormick, Tony Ames, Danny Villanueva, the UMD Percussion Studio, Arielle Miller, Robby Bowen, Eric Plewinski, the UMD School of Music, Nancy Zeltsman, Stuart Saunders Smith, Sylvia Smith, Daniel Adams, Tom DeLio, Chris Gekker, John Tafoya, Antonino D’Urzo, Robert Gibson, Ashley Fleming, Rachel Novak. works by Georges Aperghis, Daniel Adams, Stuart Saunders Smith, Lee Hinkle

WWW.ALBANYRECORDS.COM TROY1524 ALBANY RECORDS U.S. 915 BROADWAY, ALBANY, NY 12207 TEL: 518.436.8814 FAX: 518.436.0643 ALBANY RECORDS U.K. BOX 137, KENDAL, CUMBRIA LA8 0XD TEL: 01539 824008 © 2015 ALBANY RECORDS MADE IN THE USA DDD WARNING: COPYRIGHT SUBSISTS IN ALL RECORDINGS ISSUED UNDER THIS LABEL. The Performer The Composers & Music Lee Hinkle, D.M.A. is a percussionist and baritone vocalist Georges Aperghis: Le Corps à Corps whose percussion playing has been called “rock-steady” Georges Aperghis (b. 1945) is a Greek composer who resides in France. His compo- by the Washington Post. Hinkle is the principal percussionist sitions explore the boundaries between contemporary music and theatre. Aperghis’ with the 21st Century Consort, a position he has held since studied composition with Iannis Xenakis. In 1977, he founded the French music 2012. He made his Carnegie Hall solo debut in March 2014 theatre company ATEM (Atelier Théâtre et Musique) and has composed extensively with the world premiere performance of Baljinder Sekhon’s for this ensemble. Double Percussion Concerto for two percussion soloists and wind ensemble. Composed in 1978, Le Corps à Corps for a percussionist and his zarb is like many of Aperghis’s compositions, exploring the boundaries between theater and music Hinkle’s notable performances have included the National performance. Scored with stage directions and French spoken dialogue, the performer Symphony Orchestra and the Taipei Philharmonic Orchestra narrates a poeticized dual imagery between an ancient horse-drawn chariot race and as well as tours with Bebe Neuwirth, Bernadette Peters, and a modern day car race gone horribly wrong. The performer portrays three characters: the American Wind Symphony Orchestra. With several CDs to his credit, Hinkle’s a drummer, a sports commentator, and an innocent bystander. The piece is split into recordings can be heard on six different labels including the Capstone Records, New three sections: “Overture,” “The Story,” and “The Struggle.” World Records, and C. F. Peter’s Corporation labels. In “Overture,” the percussionist plays his zarb and imitates drum noises with his An active percussion recitalist and soloist, Hinkle has performed at universities mouth, as if the two “instruments” were doing battle with one another. The nonsensical and festivals across the US, several state PAS Days of Percussion, as well as two French syllables imitating drum noises create intense rhythmic polyphony with the Percussive Arts Society International Conventions. He is in demand as a soloist and drum. In “The Story,” the performer, as the sports commentator, begins to take notice clinician both locally and internationally. of the scene to his right, splicing together minute sections of the story in cinematic fashion. The drama builds until the innocent bystander takes over, screaming as Hinkle currently serves on the faculty at the University of Maryland in College Park, he recounts the horrors of the scene. In “The Struggle,” the two previous dramatic Maryland where he teaches, performs, and directs the UM Percussion Ensemble. characters are bound together, with the performer barely being able to continue in He also serves on the Percussive Arts Society Percussion Ensemble Committee light of the intense narrative catapulting the piece to its dramatic ending. Le Corps à and is the President of the MD / DE Chapter of the Percussive Arts Society. Hinkle Corps is tied together musically not only by its dramatic narrative but also by its gradual is a Yamaha Performing Artist and proudly endorses Remo drumheads, Innovative revealing of rhythmic elements in an expanding fashion (i.e. 1, 12, 123, and so on). Percussion sticks and mallets, and Grover Pro Percussion. To learn more about Lee, visit www.leehinkle.com. I. Ouverture – Overture Miami (1981) and a Bachelor of Music from Louisiana State University (1978). He is the composer of numerous published musical compositions and the author of many II. Le Récit – The Story articles and reviews on various topics related to Twentieth Century percussion music, Translation: musical pedagogy, and the music of Texas. His book entitled The Solo Snare Drum Commentaire: was published by HoneyRock in 2000. He is also the author of two entries published Before ten o’clock. in 2009 in the Oxford Encyclopedia of African-American History 1896 to the Present Commentaire: and has authored a revision of the Miami, Florida entry for the New Grove Dictionary of Before ten o’clock, surrounding the body. American Music (2013). Adams has served as a panelist and lecturer nationally and Commentaire: internationally, on topics ranging from music composition pedagogy to faculty gover- Before ten o’clock, surrounding the body, having already run the length of the track, nance. In 2011 he presented a composition master class at Ewha University in Seoul, two sides, body to body. South Korea. His music has been performed throughout the United States, and in Action: Spain, Germany, Belgium, Sweden, Turkey, Costa Rica, Argentina, Canada, and South Before ten o’clock, surrounding the body, having already run the length of the track, Korea. His music is recorded on Capstone, Ravello, Summit, and Potenza Records. two sides, body to body, the only visible action took place at the starting line where now and then a chariot surged, grasping the glittering helmet, bounding forward, Of a Just Content (2010) was commissioned by Lee Hinkle in 2009 and received its wounding his arm, with each cloud of dust, and he descended, staggering from his world premiere performance by him in 2010. Scored for one percussionist, the per- burden that the pit crew rushed to fill with gasoline and to re-launch onto the track, former plays a vibraphone; three metal bowl gongs; metal wind chimes; a bell plate; with a clean rag upon his fresh wound, on his arm the blood flowing, immense three suspended cymbals; and a small gong. He also speaks and sings text. Adams cheers arise. provides us with the following program notes: The bronze digging into the crack of the breast-plate, plunges into the entrails. The texts for the two verses of Thoreau’s Flute come from a poem writ- For another eighty kilometers of the circuit. ten in memory of Thoreau by Louisa May Alcott and published in For another hour of brutal madness. Atlantic magazine in the summer of 1863 and a notable quote from The bronze plate bracing their chests resonates horrifically, and from it spills a black Henry David Thoreau’s Walden, published in 1854. The piece is based blood that they wash with tepid water. on Thoreau’s descriptions of his sonic environment as described in Walden, his journal of life on the banks of Walden Pond from 1845 to III. La Lutte – The Struggle 1847. In a chapter of Walden entitled “Sounds” Thoreau admonishes the reader not to depend too much on the written word, but to attain Daniel Adams: Of a Just Content transcendence through the perception of one’s surroundings. However, Dr. Daniel Adams (b. 1956) is a Professor of Music at Texas Southern University references to his sonic environment pervade the entire book and in Houston where he has served on the faculty and taught courses in music theory include regularly recurring sounds heard at different times of the day. and composition since 1988. Adams holds a Doctor of Musical Arts (1985) from the Thoreau described sounds of nature, human voices in the distance, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, a Master of Music from the University of and mechanical sounds such as a train whistle, which he considered and reflective wisdom for which Thoreau is remembered. His vivid intrusive. In particular, he mentioned the melodious sounds of birds the written descriptions of all perceptual dimensions of his world including thundering sounds of ice breaking on the pond, rain falling against his sound the internal rhyme scheme of the poem articulates an A B B A cabin, church bells the bleating of calves and sheep, and onomatopoetic pattern modified to an A B B´ A´ structure that serves a basis for the (and anthropomorphic) descriptions for owl and bullfrog sounds. Also overall form of the piece, as the sections following the poetic recitation notable in Thoreau’s descriptions is the ABSENCE of some familiar are substantially modified versions of those which precede it including sounds such as those of children and domestic life. The title originates the designation of the lines to be spoken and those to be sung, only from the sixth line in the second verse of the poem; a line that summa- the first two verses of the poem are included. The overlapping sonorities rizes Thoreau’s sense of inner peace. of the definitely-pitched vibraphone and indefinitely-pitched metallic instruments represent the variety and occasional ambiguity of the Thoreau’s Flute sounds described by Thoreau. Toward the conclusion of the piece, (spoken) We sighing said, ‘Our Pan is dead; the performer speaks the following excerpt from Walden, accompanied His pipe hangs mute beside the river only by the tinkling of wind chimes: Around it wistful sunbeams quiver, ‘If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is But Music’s airy voice is dead. because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music (sung) Spring came to us in guise forlorn; which he hears, however measured or far away.’ The bluebird chants a requiem; The willow-blossom waits for him; Following a final rapid flourish of indefinitely-pitched sounds, the piece concludes The Genius of the wood is gone.’ with a ‘flute-like’ coda played using a bow on the vibraphone. (sung) Then from the flute, untouched by hands, There came a low, harmonious breath: Stuart Saunders Smith: The Authors ‘For such as he there is no death; Stuart Saunders Smith (b. 1948) is a prolific American composer, scholar, and His life the eternal life commands; writer whose compositions often combine music, text, and theater to create a unified (spoken) Above man’s aims his nature rose. “music-text.” In his traditionally notated compositions, Smith uses irregular rhythms The wisdom of a just content to imitate the irregular rhythms and pitch of human speech patterns. In other compo- Made one small spot a continent sitions, Smith utilizes alternate notation systems created specially for each piece. In And tuned to poetry life’s prose.’ these cases Smith’s scores often appear more like the script for a straight play than a musical score; complete with stage directions. Although Thoreau was known to have carried a wooden flute, which he often played during his long walks, the poem itself speaks symbolically of the interconnectedness of the sonic world and the insight, sensitivity, Over a hundred of Smith’s works are for percussion instruments with a special II. Kerouac emphasis on vibraphone literature. His Links Series of Vibraphone Essays (1974- (unable to obtain reprint permission) 1994) is considered by many as groundbreaking music. Also Plenty (I-XXXIV) and New England are concert length compositions for vibraphone that extend III. Dickinson the intellectual and emotional range of that instrument. He has also composed Of God we ask one favor, extensively for drumset, orchestra bells, xylophone, marimba, chimes, and multi- That we may be forgiven — percussion. Smith’s percussion-theater music forms the core of that literature For what, he is presumed to know — with such pieces as Poems I II III, ...And Points North, Clay Singing; as well as The Crime, from us, is hidden — The Authors and Tunnels which can be heard on this recording. Immured the whole of Life Within a magic Prison The Authors for marimba / vocalist was commissioned by percussionist Jamie Dietz We reprimand the Happiness in 2006 and received its world premiere performance by Dr. Lee Hinkle in 2009. That too competes with Heaven. The Authors is a marimba opera. Made up of eleven movements, the spoken and THE PEDIGREE of honey sung texts represent excerpts from the authors’ famous novels, poems, and sonnets. Does not concern the bee; The performer is tasked with speaking, singing, whistling, and acting while playing the A clover, anytime, to him marimba. Most of the movements feature the marimba being played in a traditional Is aristocracy manner; however, in movement seven, “Stein,” the marimba’s keys are modified by placing cardboard over certain notes to produce a pitched typewriter-like sound. BEAUTY crowds me till I die In movement eight, “Chute,” the performer sits on the stage to play a homemade Beauty, mercy have on me! marimba made up of five small resonating logs. And in movement eleven, “Bly,” But if I expire today, a narrator (specified to be of the opposite sex of the performer) takes over the text Let it be in sight of thee from the performer to close the piece. Proceeding in a quasi-cinematic fashion, each movement of The Authors provides a brief snapshot of its author dramatically, IV. Salinger musically, and literarily. This fall I think you’re riding for—it’s a special kind of fall, a horrible kind. The man falling isn’t permitted to feel or hear himself hit bottom. He just keeps I. Whitman falling and falling. Shut not your doors to me proud libraries, for that which was lacking on your well-fill’d shelves, yet needed most I bring forth from the war emerging, a book I have made, the words of my book nothing, the drift of it, everything. V. Bowles VIII. Chute He awoke, opened his eyes. The room meant very little to him; he was too deeply (unable to obtain reprint permission) immersed in the non-being from which he had just come . . . IX. Black Elk When she opened her eyes she knew immediately where she was. The moon was low Good Thunder now took one of my arms, Kicking Bear the other, and we began to . . . burning sky each morning . . . dance. The song we sang was like this: “Do you think it is he that comes? It is one who seeks his mother!” It was what the dead would sing when entering the other VI. Miller world and looking for their relatives who had gone there before them. I was sent here for a reason . . . I have no money, no resources, no hopes. I am the happiest man alive . . . I thought that I was an artist. I no longer think about it X. Plath . . . Everything . . . has fallen from me. There are no more books to be written . . . He was the type of fellow I can’t stand. I’m five feet ten in my stocking feet, and when Brother, can you spare, a dime? . . . The war was on and men were being slaugh- I am with little men I stoop over a bit and slouch my hips, one up and one down, so I’ll tered, one million, two million, five million, ten million, twenty million . . . hundred look shorter, and I feel gawky and morbid as somebody in a sideshow. million, then a billion. Everybody: man, woman, child, down to the last one. “No!” they were shouting. “No! they shall not pass!” And yet everybody passed; everybody For a minute I had a wild hope we might pair off according to size, which would line got a free pass, whether he shouted Yes or No. me up with the man who . . . cleared a good six feet, but he went ahead with Doreen and didn’t give me a second look. VII. Stein I am going to read what I have written to read, because in a general way it is easier Edna St. Vincent Millay even if it is not better and in a general way it is better even if it is not easier to read What lips my lips have kissed, and where and why, I have forgotten, and what arms what has been written than to say what has not been written. Any way that is one way have lain under my head till morning. In my heart there stirs a quiet pain. Thus in winter to feel about it . . . stands the lonely tree, its boughs more silent than before. I remember not way loves have come and gone. I only know that summer sang in me, and in me sang no more. To begin with, I seem always to be doing the talking when I am anywhere but in spite of that I do listen. I always listen. I always have listened. I always have listened to the way everybody has to tell what they have to say. In other words I always have listened in my way of listening until they have told me and told me until I really know it, that is know what they are. XI. Bly Dante’s Inferno A man and a woman sit near each other, and they do not long at this moment to be Canto III older, or younger, nor born in any other nation, or time, or place. They are content to Per me si va nella città dolente, be where they are, talking or not-talking. per me si va nell’ etterno dolore, Their breaths together feed someone whom we do not know. per me si va tra la perduta gente. The man sees the way his fingers move; he sees her hands close around a book Giustizia mosse il mio alto fattore: she hands to him. They obey a third body that they share in common. They have fecemi la divina potestate, made a promise to love that body. Age may come, parting may come, death will come la somma sapienza e ‘l primo amore. . . . as they breathe they feed someone we do not know, someone we know of, whom Dinanzi a me non fuor cose créate we have never seen. se non etterne, e io etterna duro. lasciate ogni speranza, voi ch’ entrate. Lee Hinkle: Vibratissimo Vibratissimo was written in 2011 by Lee Hinkle (b. 1982) and received its world- Queste parole di colore oscuro premiere performance in March 2012. I was inspired to write Vibratissimo for two vid’ io scritte al sommo d’una porta ; reasons. Firstly, I discovered a unique, and as far as I know, previously unutilized per ch’ io: ‘Maestro, il senso lor m’é duro.’ effect that could be conveyed with the vibraphone. By carefully adjusting the speed of the motor I discovered that I could play notes in the same tempo as the undulations Ed elli a me, come persona accorta: created by the motor. The piece toys with this effect and utilizes rapid passages articu- ‘qui si convien lasciare ogni sospetto; lated by the performer with long sustained notes that undulate at the same tempo as ogni viltà convien che qui sia morta. the articulated notes. Noi siam venuti al loco ov’ io t’ ho detto che tu vedrai le genti dolorose Secondly, I came across a video via YouTube of a parody by Adriano Celentano for c’ hanno perduto il ben de l’intelletto.’ the Italian television program Mileluci. Entitled “Prisecolinensinenciousol,” the short E poi che la sua mano alla mia pose musical skit is sung entirely in gibberish designed to sound like what English sounds con lieto volto, ond’ io mi confortai, like to native Italian speakers. The performance was so brilliant and hilarious that I mi mise dentro a le segrete cose. knew I had to find a way to incorporate this idea, in reverse (making fun of the way Italian sounds to English speakers), in my piece Vibratissimo. I chose a text from Through me the way into the woeful city, Dante’s Inferno to convey this idea in the middle section of the piece in which I Through me the way to the eternal pain, progressively speak the words with a poorer and poorer accent until dissolving entirely Through me the way among the lost people. into a southern-American English accent; all while playing unusual sound effects Justice moved my maker on high, on the vibraphone. Divine power made me and supreme wisdom and primal love; In my speech songs, I reverse the situation. Words come out, Before me nothing was created but eternal but it sounds like music. For me this music-sense makes things and I endure eternally. perfect sense. Abandon every hope, ye that enter. To achieve this “music-text sense” in Tunnels, the score is notated mostly in a text These words I saw inscribed in dark characters over a gateway; therefore I said: format, in Smith’s signature “straight play” style, noted above. In the score Smith ‘Master, their sense is dreadful to me.’ tells us, “All of the non-English text is constructed with letters / phonemes from the word ‘tunnels.’” Several special markings in the score surrounding this text guide the And he said to me, like one experienced: performer in creating a speech song that accents certain words or word parts and ‘Here must all distrust be left behind, expands upon them as a musical onomatopoeia. There are no specific instruments here must all cowardice be ended; listed and the performer is given full authority to choose as many or as few we are come to the place where I told thee instruments as he wishes in order to achieve the music-sense for the piece. thou shouldst see the woeful people The instrumentation should, however, include both standard percussion who have lost the good of the intellect.’ instruments and sounds not commonly associated with percussion.

And when he had laid his hand on mine For this recording I have chosen to use the following instruments: Tin music box, with cheerful looks that gave me comfort, “Pardon Me! PIGGY”: the self-inflating wildlife whoopee cushion!, decorative hotel he led me in to the things that are hidden there. bell, bird “squeaker” toy, peanut can, coffee can filled with spare change, mixing bowl filled with water, snare drum, guiro, ratchet, Tibetan cymbal, slide whistle, a duck call, Stuart Saunders Smith: Tunnels almglocken (German cowbell), cracked Chinese cymbal, tom-tom, metal wash tub, Tunnels for percussionist / actor was composed for and first performed by Salvatore small piece of a wooden 2” x 4”, boom box queued to play Marvin Gaye’s “Let’s Get Macchia and Robert Black in 1988. In the score, Smith provides the following It On”, scuba fins, cow “moo” toy; Audubon bird call, pop gun, splash cymbal, pod program notes: rattle, ocean drum, wind machine, egg shaker bag of marbles, Little Tikes Discover Sounds Hammer, and bell plate. I once had a dream when I was very little which never left me. —Lee Hinkle In this dream, when people talked, they sounded like musical instruments – this one a tuba – this one a violin – this one a snare drum, and so on. No words came out, just instrumental sounds. I was very disappointed when I woke up to find it was just a dream. Theatrical Music for Solo Percussion TROY1524

Stuart Saunders Smith (b. 1948) The Authors for marimba / vocalist (2006) 5 I. Whitman [1:52] Theatrical Music for 6 II. Kerouac [1:38] Solo Percussion 7 III. Dickinson [3:47] 8 IV. Salinger [2:11] Lee Hinkle 9 V. Bowles [1:31] Lee Hinkle, percussion & voice 10 VI. Miller [2:56] 11 VII. Stein [1:59] 12 VIII. Chute [1:44] Georges Aperghis (b. 1945) 13 IX. Black Elk [1:08] Le Corps à Corps for zarb / vocalist (1978) 14 X. Sylvia Plath, Edna St. Vincent Millay [2:48] 1 I. Overture [3:33] 15 XI. Bly [3:47] 2 II. The Story [3:19] Arielle Miller, narrator 3 III. The Struggle [1:34]

Lee Hinkle Lee Hinkle (b. 1982) Daniel Adams (b. 1956) 16 Vibratissimo for vibraphone / vocalist (2011) [7:59] 4 Of a Just Content for vibraphone & multiple percussion / vocalist (2010) [11:44] Stuart Saunders Smith (b. 1948) 17 Tunnels for Percussionist Actor (1988) [8:49]

Total Time = 63:00 TROY1524