An examination of notation in selected repertoire for multiple percussion

Abstract

This document is an examination of multiple percussion notation in selected repertoire.A complete standardization for multiple percussion is unlikely, and this project does not seek to standardize notation.Rather, it seeks to describe important works and their notational systems, thus illustrating that a standardization is not possible and would limit composers' creativity.The chosen repertoire represents a historical range of the genre, spanning from the first multiple percussion composition in 1918 to contemporary works.The compositions chosen for this project are presented in chronological order, and consist of the following works: Igor Stravinsky's L'Histoire du Soldat, Darius Milhaud's La Création du Monde and Concerto for Percussion and Small Orchestra, Morton Feldman's The King of Denmark, William Kraft's English Suite, Iannis Xenakis' Psappha and Rebonds, and David Holliden's Cold Pressed.Each work was examined and then described in terms of instrumentation, setup, composer's instructions, and notational systems.In addition, the study seeks to identify connections between the composers' chosen notational systems, the composers' backgrounds, and the works' chronological placement in the development of percussion music.This document's purpose is to illustrate the compositional devices used, and in some cases created, by the selected composers.Several iii problems in notation were concluded from the examination, including composers' choice of and inconsistencies in note placement, unnecessary details, multiple staves, and unfamiliar graphic notation.Further conclusions drawn from the examination offer suggestions for assisting composers project a clear representation of their intentions.

Cite this work

No public copy is stored for this record, so only the metadata is cited.

Stored only when both papers are in the corpus — 5 citations exist upstream.

Papers that cite the same references — the relational fallback while embeddings are still backfilling.