Percussion Ensembles deliver annual fall performance
Students gathered in the Kent Concert Hall to hear the USU Percussion Ensembles perform in their annual fall concert. The concert consisted of two different ensembles.
The USU Percussion Ensemble is a larger, fourteen-member group including both majors and non-majors. The Caine Percussion Ensemble consists of five percussion-major members, and the students in this ensemble were carefully selected and are on scholarship for their membership in this group, said Dr. Jason Nicholson, percussion director at USU.
Together, these two groups played a wide variety of pieces crossing a plethora of genres, including classical, jazz, Afro-Cuban dance and more contemporary music.
“There will be a wide array of instruments being used, both by genre and history,” Nicholson said before the performance. “It should be fun for the audience. We make a lot of cool sound effects.”
Nicholson, who conducted one of the pieces and performed at Monday’s concert, said there are many strange instruments used to create these sounds.
The Afro-Cuban piece included traditional African instruments like congas, cowbells, and shakers; the ensembles also included a Marimba Quartet and singing on one piece. One jazz tune written by Pat Metheny had bass guitar and a drum set to accompany the traditional percussion instruments. The ensemble’s performance of “Feud,” composed by Lou Harrison, included a strange instrument called clock coils – an instrument made from the coils of a grandfather clock bound to the body of a guitar.
Emily Ashcroft, a senior majoring in music education and a member of the Caine Ensemble, was excited about the wide array of instruments.
“I love percussion because there are so many different instruments that you’re never just on one,” Ashcroft said. “They’re all fun – drums, marimbas, hand drums – there’s so much you can do with percussion.”
Musicians moved from one instrument to another throughout the concert. The musicians played drums, xylophones, triangles and large gongs strewn about the stage.
This year’s fall concert was a bit different than it has been in the past, Nicholson said. Students chose three of the five pieces they performed.
“Students have input in choosing the pieces, and they will be talking about them,” Nicholson said. “They have a more active role. They’ve really gotten into it.”
Nicholson said he decided to allow the students this freedom and control to keep them engaged and interested in the music they were playing. Ashcroft was one of the students who took part in the decision process.
“I really thought it was cool,” she said. “I actually was able to help pick a song and transcribe it. It was motivating for me because it was something that I really wanted to do, and it wasn’t just put in front of me. I learned a lot from it because I was involved. It makes a big difference.”
The piece Ashcroft transcribed was an African melody with loud beating drums and hymn-like chants. During the concert, she said it was never written down, but passed from generation to generation by ear.
Ashcroft said she was able to transcribe the piece by listening to the music over and over again before teaching the rhythm and feeling that went along with it to the rest of the students.
The Percussion Ensembles will not hold another performance until April, but Ashcroft encouraged music lovers to come see the groups again in the spring. She said everyone can find something they like about percussion if they just give it a chance.