For Johanna Beyer (2015)

For Johanna Beyer (2015) for 9+ percussionists & speaker

Published by Kreating SounD Duration: 5:28

Notes

For Johanna Beyer (2015) is scored for speaking voice, large woodblock, giant tam tam, three lion’s roars, and four to sixteen-or-more triangles. Johanna Magdalena Beyer (1888-1944) was a German-born composer and pianist, considered one of the Ultra-Modernists of early 20th Century American Art music. Beyer was an integral composer and networker in the development of percussion music in the Western canon, alongside Henry Cowell, John Cage, Lou Harrison, William Russell, and others. The poem, “TOTAL ECLIPSE,” used in this composition was penned by Beyer and the instrumentation is a nod to Beyer’s preferences in several of her compositions. Anyone familiar with Beyer’s percussion works will recognize the woodblock part and lion’s roars as iconic. The composition is notated using traditional music notation, however the relationships of the performers are not precisely fixed, rather they are coordinated within timeframes allowing individual performers a degree of choice during the realization of the work.

Recordings

Outsider In : chamber works for percussion https://roncoulter.bandcamp.com/album/outsider-in-chamber-works-for-percussion

Performances

November 13, 2018; Ford Theater, Youngstown State University (Youngstown, OH), Performers: Youngstown State University Percussion Ensemble, directed by Glenn Schaft October 21, 2017 Wheeler Concert Hall, Casper College (Casper, WY), World Premiere, Performers: Casper College Percussion Group, directed by Ron Coulter