related works
Ramasasiri : for soprano and five instrumentalists, (1968) / Joep Straesser
Genre:
Vocal music
Subgenre:
Voice and instrument(s)
Scoring:
sopr fl 2perc vibr(mar) pf(cemb)
Et in tempore vesperi erit lux : for organ, 1991 / Daan Manneke
Genre:
Chamber music
Subgenre:
Organ; Mixed ensemble (2-12 players)
Scoring:
org3h / 2org / org harm/synth/acc/3instr
Bassonnerie : pour basson et clavecin (ou piano), (1962) / Cor de Groot
Genre:
Chamber music
Subgenre:
Mixed ensemble (2-12 players); Bassoon and keyboard instrument
Scoring:
fg cemb/pf
Hammer und Tanz : for piano four-hands and two percussionists / Jan-Peter de Graaff
Genre:
Chamber music
Subgenre:
Mixed ensemble (2-12 players)
Scoring:
pf4h 2perc
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