related works
Seismograms : for percussion, 1967, (second version 1979) / Joep Straesser
Genre:
Chamber music
Subgenre:
Percussion
Scoring:
2perc(pf)
Sextet 1990 : voor pauken en koperblazers, 1990 / Mathieu Geelen
Genre:
Chamber music
Subgenre:
Mixed ensemble (2-12 players)
Scoring:
h 2trp trb tb timp
Hoquetus, Battaglia & Madrigal : for clarinet in B-flat and harp / Robert Groslot
Genre:
Chamber music
Subgenre:
Mixed ensemble (2-12 players)
Scoring:
cl hrp
On Hearing a Monk from Shu Playing His Lute - 聽蜀僧浚彈琴 : for Chinese Ensemble / Man-Ching Yu Donald
Genre:
Chamber music
Subgenre:
Mixed ensemble (2-12 players)
composition
Points of contact I : for tenor recorder, marimba and some percussion, 1987 / Joep Straesser
Other authors:
Straesser, Joep
(Composer)
Description:
Program note (English): "Points of contact I" for tenor recorder, marimba and some small percussion instruments (high cymbal, triangle and small Chinese gong) was specially composed for the Japanese percussionist Keiko Abe, and the Dutch recorder player Walter van Hauwe.
The title of the work indicates a special compositional technique, through which the musical parts repeatedly make points of contact, and then drift apart again. These points of contact are musically stressed in different degrees, varying from "almost unnoticed, casual" to "explicit and with strong, expressive effect". Beside the above-mentioned musical characteristic, there is another important starting point. The whole work's music is derived from two short motifs: the first, with which the piece starts, has the major seventh and the perfect fourth as characteristic intervals, heard in a dotted rhythm and a figure of repeated tones, slowing down on the final note.
The second motif, which comes into being during the first section, and sounds "in all its glory" at its end, consists of a minor second and a minor third - the combination forming a major third -, while rhythmically it is less succinct and more flexible than the first motif.
The following sections 2 to 5 are alternately based on motif 1 or 2, resulting in a kind of "indirect" dialectics, or, as one might say, "dialectics from a distance". In the sixth section, both motifs are played off against one another - direct dialectics! -, and in the seventh section both motifs melt together in a recorder solo, supported by some strikes of the Chinese gong. In the eighth and last section, the role of both motifs is over. All that remains is a fast musical motion, a virtuoso duet for recorder and marimba, with only one strike of the gong, which ends the work. Tenor recorder and marimba are treated as equals, and they supply most of the music in the piece. The other three percussion instruments' task is to join the different sections into larger units. The cymbal joins sections 1 to 4, the triangle sections 5 and 6, the gong sections 7 and 8. - JOEP STRAESSER