Theatrical music for contemporary percussion

Ricardo Costa Oliveira

About this exposition

Nowadays it becomes more and more common for composers, when writing for percussion, to add to their music detailed theatrical elements for the performer to execute. The performer has the task to develop extra skills to perform their music in a convincing way. Since this year, I have asked myself what theatrical skills I should have as a percussionist when performing these kinds of pieces and what important aspects could be effective to interpret the music better and capture the attention of the audience. The first part of my research is going to be about what the meaning of theatrical music, looking at the compositions of pioneers like Georges Aperghis, Vinko Globokar or Mark Applebaum and defining the skills that the performer must get in order to perform these kind of pieces, for example the focus of the eyes, precision of the movements and the message transmission. The most remarkable example that shows these aspects, is “Aphasia” by Mark Applebaum. This piece was inspired by a conversation between a friend and Applebaum. The point of this question is not about instructions or the piece itself but the relevance of this genre in the percussionist development and the percussion repertoire. I agree that theatrical music for contemporary percussion is important for the education process because it will make the students develop a lot of artistic experiences and techniques that we cannot find in another musical genre. As part of my Master Research I decided that both my Master’s recitals would have to be connected to each other. In my first year Master Recital I performed “Aphasia” for solo percussion and “Contre 2” for Percussion and Piano, both theatrical pieces that are connected to my research. For my second and final Master Recital, I will prepare a recital in which half of the program will be only focused theatrical pieces.

type	research exposition
keywords	Beyond Discipline, Performance, Percussion
date	24/02/2020
published	19/08/2020
last modified	19/08/2020
status	limited publication
share status	private
copyright	@Ricardo
license	All rights reserved
url	https://www.researchcatalogue.net/view/809078/809079
published in	KC Research Portal
portal issue	3. Internal publication

id	name	copyright	license
809086	Research Ricardo Final 2	@Ricardo	All rights reserved
809357	Research Ricardo Final version	@ricardo	All rights reserved
809362	Research Ricardo Final version	@ricardo	All rights reserved
809403	Research Ricardo Final version	@Ricardo	All rights reserved

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Theatrical music for contemporary percussion (2020)

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