Percussion Ensemble. Texas.
In year 12, as a student who played both a wind and string instrument as well as piano, I had little to no knowledge on how to play or compose for percussion. I was clueless about the instruments that were available and how the material and make of the instruments could produce such a large variety in tone colour. I was keen to fill in this "gap" in my "knowledge of musical instruments" and decided to ask my music teacher where I could learn more about the percussion section. I was given two things in response to my question.
One - access to the school's cupboard of percussion instruments to experiment with.
Two - a score and video performance of this piece.
I believe the works studied in class (especially in year 12), should encompass a large variety of ensembles, styles and instrumentation so that students are exposed to all kinds of music and instruments, and therefore would have the experience to tackle the HSC musicology paper where nothing is predictable. By introducing students to all different kinds of music and instruments, they will also have a wider range of choice when it comes to composing their core compositions, knowing what sounds they prefer and what is available to them.
When planning how to use this piece in my program, I came up with these teaching points:
Score and video performance of the piece - great reference for how to notate and write for percussion
Minimalism - simple and easy to listen to, a composition style students may adapt for their own core compositions?
Explore and experiment with pitched vs unpitched instruments. It may even be a core composition idea! "The battle between the pitched and unpitched"...
For students to have hands-on experience with percussion, I decided to create a small composition activity as an accompanying resource for this work. The aim of this activity is to encourage students to explore what is available and be thinking whether percussion is something they may want to write for or include in their core comp.
For this activity, a list of percussion writing tips is also available on the website resource here: Tips for writing Percussion
These tips are a compilation of my own percussion writing experiences as well as notes I took from Carl Vine's Instrumentation and Orchestration class in first year...