! ! CREATIVE MUSICAL IMPROVISATION IN THE DEVELOPMENT AND FORMATION OF NEXUS PERCUSSION ENSEMBLE ! ! ! ! Olman Eduardo! Piedra ! ! ! ! ! A Dissertation! Submitted to the Graduate College of Bowling Green State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements !for the degree of DOCTOR OF MUSICAL! ARTS May !2014 Committee: Roger B. Schupp, Advisor Gregory A. Rich, Graduate Faculty Representative Katherine L. Meizel John W. Sampen !ii ABSTRACT ! Roger B. Schupp, Advisor ! ! The percussion ensemble is a vital contemporary chamber group that has lead to a substantial body of commissions and premieres of works by many prominent composers of new music. On Saturday May 22nd, 1971, in a concert at Kilbourn Hall at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York, NEXUS percussion ensemble, hailed by many as the world’s premiere percussion ensemble, improvised the entire program of their inaugural, 120 minute concert as a newly formed group, while using non-Western instruments with which the majority of the audience were unfamiliar.! NEXUS percussion ensemble has been influential in helping create new sounds and repertoire since their formation in 1971. While some scholarly study has focused on new commission for the medium, little attention has been given to the importance and influence of creative improvised music (not jazz) in the formation of NEXUS and its role in the continued success of the contemporary percussion ensemble.! This study examined the musical and cultural backgrounds of past and current members of NEXUS percussion ensemble, and the musical traditions they represent and recreate. The author conducted and transcribed telephone interviews with members of NEXUS percussion ensemble, examined scholarly research related to drumming traditions of the world and their use of improvisation, researched writings on creative improvisation and its methods, and synthesized !iii the findings of this research into a document that chronicles the presence of creative improvisation in the performance practices of NEXUS percussion ensemble. The combination of a collective interest to express musical ideas in a non-traditional way, paired with an abundance of sound sources and instruments that would fall under the “exotic” category, an atmosphere of social and political change, the lack of written music for their newly- formed percussion ensemble, and the fact that one of the founding members did not read music, came together to contribute to the NEXUS sound. ! !iv ! ! ! ! ! To my wife, her parents, my parents, and my brothers. !v ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The author wishes to thank Bill Cahn, Russel Hartenberger, Gary Kvistad, Robin Engelman, and Bob Becker for their assistance with this project. Thank you NEXUS for opening minds and ears with your improvisations . Thank you Dr. Roger Schupp, for your guidance, wisdom, and patience. Thank you to my DMA committee for your help and patience. Thank you to all my percussion teachers and to all the great musicians I have had the opportunity to improvise with. !vi TABLE OF CONTENTS Page INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................................. 1 CHAPTER I. IMPROVISATION AND MUSIC HISTORY ................................................ 3 CHAPTER II. IMPROVISATION AND PERFORMANCE PRACTICE ........................... 13 CHAPTER III. NEXUS ........................................................................................................ 25 CHAPTER IV. CREATIVE MUSICAL IMPROVISATION IN THE DEVELOPMENT AND FORMATION OF NEXUS PERCUSSION ENSEMBLE .................................................... 38 BIBLIOGRAPHY .................................................................................................................. 60 APPENDIX A. BIOGRAPHIES ........................................................................................... 63 NEXUS ............................................................................................................ 63 Bob Becker ............................................................................................................ 66 Bill Cahn ............................................................................................................ 72 Russell Hartenberger .................................................................................................. 73 Garry Kvistad ............................................................................................................ 74 Michael Craden .......................................................................................................... 76 Robin Engelman ......................................................................................................... 81 John Wyre in memoriam ............................................................................................ 84 APPENDIX B. TELEPHONE INTERVIEW WITH WILLIAM CAHN. JUNE 7TH, 2013. 88 APPENDIX C. TELEPHONE INTERVIEW WITH GARRY KVISTAD. JUNE 13TH, 2013. 104 APPENDIX D. TELEPHONE INTERVIEW WITH RUSSELL HARTENBERGER. JUNE 13TH, 2013. ............................................................................................................ 115 !vii APPENDIX E. INSTRUMENT ............................................................................................ 127 APPENDIX F. HSRB APPROVAL LETTER ...................................................................... 129 !viii LIST OF FIGURES Figure Page 1 Photograph of John Wyre at Kilbourn Hall .................................................................... 28 2 Photograph of Bob Becker at Kilbourn Hall ................................................................... 29 3 Photograph of Warren Benson and Bill Cahn at Kilbourn Hall ...................................... 30 4 Photograph of Robin Engelman at Kilbourn Hall ........................................................... 31 5 Program from the first NEXUS concert .......................................................................... 32 6 Review of the first NEXUS concert ................................................................................ 33 ! !1 INTRODUCTION ! The Contemporary Percussion Ensemble has long been at the vanguard of new music composition, performance, and musical experimentation. Dating from the earliest pieces written for the medium in the 1930s (Amadeo Roldán’s Rítmica 5 and 61 , and Edgar Varèse’s Ionisation2 ) composers have turned to percussionists for new sonorities and new textures for their music. This has aided in establishing the percussion ensemble as a vital unit amongst contemporary chamber groups and has led to a substantial body of commissions and premieres of works by many prominent composers of new music. While some scholarly study has focused on these compositional contributions to the medium, little attention has been given to the importance and influence of creative improvised music (not to be mistaken with jazz or free jazz) in the formation and continued success of the modern percussion ensemble. I wish to commence this research into the nebulous, unwritten, spontaneous, and often overlooked genre of contemporary concert music. This document will begin with a review of literature pertaining to the topic, followed by material comparing and contrasting improvisational styles in contemporary music and jazz. Subsequent sections will include biographies and member rosters of NEXUS percussion ensemble (both past and present), and information gleaned from interviews with some of these !1 Aurelio de la Vega, "Roldán, Amadeo," Grove Music Online, Oxford Music Online, http://0- www.oxfordmusiconline.com.maurice.bgsu.edu/subscriber/article/grove/music/23705 (accessed July 7, 2013). !2 "Ionisation," The Oxford Dictionary of Music, Oxford Music Online, http://0- www.oxfordmusiconline.com.maurice.bgsu.edu/subscriber/article/opr/t237/e5217 (accessed July 7, 2013). !2 members addressing the role that improvisation played in the creation of and continued success of NEXUS Percussion Ensemble. ! !3 CHAPTER I. IMPROVISATION AND MUSIC HISTORY ! The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians defines improvisation as “The creation of a musical work, or the final form of a musical work, as it is being performed. It may involve the work's immediate composition by its performers, or the elaboration or adjustment of an existing framework, or anything in between”.3 It further asserts that the fleeting nature of this type of music makes it a less desirable area of study for researchers. Etymologically, the word “improvise” comes from the French improviser or the Italian root improvvisare, meaning unforeseen, without preparation (provisions) for. The New Oxford American Dictionary defines the word improvise as: “create and perform (music, drama, or verse) spontaneously or without preparation”.4 A long standing tenet among musicians, be they improvisers or not, is that preparation and individual practice are paramount to the successful execution of and respect demanded by the art form. It seems that both dictionaries, in their definition of improvisation, suggest or tacitly point to the absence of a plan or the lack of musical means, rendering improvisation by definition as a musical work of lesser proportions and inferior artistic quality than those that are notated on paper. Historically, improvisation has been a part of Western art music since the late 1400s. Namely, it was used to identify those aspects of the composition such as variations in text, melodic ornamentations, and solo cadenzas found