♫ Episode #46 – Percussionist Colin Currie on Performing and Recording Steve Reich’s Drumming
Summary: We talk with percussionist Colin Currie, who discusses performing and recording Steve Reich's seminal minimalist work Drumming.<br> <br> <br> <br> This week's guest:<br> <br> <br> * <a href="http://www.colincurrie.com">Colin Currie</a> <br> <br> <br> <br> Show notes:<br> <br> <br> <br> * <a href="http://amzn.to/2nqqMCc">Steve Reich: Drumming (the original 1974 recording)</a> <br> * <a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/steve-reichs-clapping-music-improve-your-rhythm/id946487211?mt=8">Steve Reich's Clapping Music app</a> <br> * <a href="http://www.boosey.com/cr/music/Steve-Reich-Drumming/1374">The score of Steve Reich's Drumming</a> <br> * <a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1522582226/colin-currie-group-record-steve-reichs-drumming">Colin Currie Group Record Steve Reich's Drumming</a> <br> * <a href="https://www.southbankcentre.co.uk/whats-on/109330-steve-reich-drumming-and-tehillim-2017">Colin Currie Group at the Southbank Centre, London, May 5, 2017</a> <br> * <a href="http://amzn.to/2nqz396">Steve Reich: Tehillim & The Desert Music</a> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br><br> <br> Steve Reich's notes about Drumming: <br> <br> For one year, between the fall of 1970 and the fall of 1971, I worked on what turned out to be the longest piece I have ever composed. Drumming lasts from 55 to 75 minutes (depending on the number of repeats played) and is divided into four parts that are performed without pause. The first part is for four parts that are performed without pause. The first part is for four pairs of tuned bongo drums, stand-mounted and played with sticks; the second, for three marimbas played by nine players together with two women’s voices; the third, or three glockenspiels played by four players together with whistling and piccolo; and the fourth section is for all these instruments and voices combined.<br> <br> While first player the drums during the process of composition, I found myself sometimes singing with them, using my voice to imitate the sounds they made. I began to understand that this might also be possible with the marimbas and glockenspiels as well. Thus the basic assumption about the voices in Drumming was that they would not sing words, but would precisely imitate the sound of the instruments. The women’s voices sing patterns resulting from the combination of two or more marimbas playing the identical repeating pattern one of more quarter notes out of phase with each other. By exactly imitating the sound of the instruments, and by gradually fading the patterns in and out, the singers cause them to slowly rise to the surface of the music and then fade back into it, allowing the listener to hear these patterns, along with many others, actually sounding in the instruments. For the marimbas, the female voice was needed, using consonants like "b" and "d" with a more or less "u" (as in "you") vowel sound. In the case of the glockenspiels, the extremely high range of the instrument precluded any use of the voice and necessitated whistling. Even this form of vocal production proved impossible when the instrument was played in its higher ranges, and this created the need for a more sophisticated form of whistle: the piccolo. In the last section of the piece these techniques are combined simultaneously with each imitating its particular instrument. <br> <br> The sections are joined together by the new instruments doubling the exact pattern of the instruments already playing. At the end of the drum section three drummers play the same pattern two quarter notes out of phase with each other. Three marimba players enter softly with the same pattern also played two quarter notes out of phase. The drummers gradually fade out so that the same rhythm and pitches are maintained with a gradual change of timbre. At the end of the marimba section,
