Dance Music for Elfrid Ide was written in 1940, while Cage was on the Dance Faculty at Mills College, to accompany the thesis of graduate dance student Elfrid Ide. In three highly contrasting movements, this whimsical piece seems to have been a playground of compositional experimentation for Cage. Although written in the same time period as his better known percussion ensemble works, this piece was not written for or played by Cage’s own percussion ensemble. After its likely only performance for Elfrid Ide’s Dance Thesis Concert in 1941, the piece was filed away in the Mills College archives and remained unknown until its discovery in 2005. Originally unearthed in the form of two incomplete manuscripts, a new score and parts for Dance Music for Elfrid Ide were created by editor Don Gillespie.
Fringe Percussion's relationship with this work came about thanks to a chance occurrence at Vancouver New Music's John Cage Festival in October 2006. Jonathan had arrived late to a concert and began chatting with Gene Caprioglio from Edition Peters, who had a booth in the lobby. Hearing about this newly discovered work, Jonathan asked if Fringe Percussion could premiere the piece. As a result, Dance Music for Elfrid Ide was given its modern North American premiere by Fringe Percussion, joined by guests Marguerite Witvoet and Vern Griffiths, at the Vancouver Art Gallery's first dusk-to-dawn FUSE event on June 23, 2007.
Darwin’s Walken Fish Quartet (yes that’s true, a fish with legs...)
Aside from the obvious reference to evolution (but really, all music evolves/devolves in some way or another, whether becoming more/less complex or simply progressing through time) the other reason for naming the quartet after a Darwin fish was that the very idea of a fish with legs, and the type of locomotion that it would be capable of, completely fascinates me. I mean, can you imagine the way that a fish with legs would move??? The combination of walking/swimming/wiggling would be excellent. I think sometimes it would be more of a torsion-inflected style of side-to-side motion, and at other times perhaps it would hop. (These ruminations may well be reflected in the different sections of music found in this quartet.)
-Jocelyn Morlock
Marubatoo was originally written as a duet for marimba and tuba entitled Maruba. It was conceived as a conversation between Wyre, a percussionist, and his late father, a tubist. While corresponding with Tones in the fall of 2005, Wyre revealed a preference for an alternate version of Maruba—one that included a part for vibraphone. This trio version was never published or recorded.
Marubatoo, in its original version, is a percussion quintet version of Maruba, arranged for the ensemble Nexus. To the original trio parts (with bass marimba in place of the tuba) Marubatoo adds another marimba part as well as a part for crotales.
The arrangement contained on this recording is a hybrid of these two versions. Fringe Percussion’s interpretation of Marubatoo is based upon the work’s unrecorded trio version, and is complemented by textural and colouristic elements provided by the crotales.
Enginuity is a portmanteau on the words engine and ingenuity, and the piece itself is a synthesis of musical ideas from around the world. When Fringe Percussion commissioned me to write for them I immediately thought of the interlocking drum patterns of Balinese gamelan music, which I have been studying for a number of years. Skin and wood barrel drums are the heart of the gamelan, and they serve a truly melodic, as well as rhythmic, function. In Enginuity I gave the starring melodic role to the drums, which are tuned to create a four-note melody that gets split, in an interlocking fashion, between two drummers. There is also an oblique reference to Indian classical drumming in the use of a 23-beat rhythmic cycle, or tala, as a phrase structure throughout the piece. I call it an oblique reference, since I don’t claim a great knowledge of Indian drumming, but I love the idea of these long, asymmetric counting patterns that feel regular and yet unpredictable at the same time. The more traditional Western percussion instruments of vibraphone and marimba, which usually take a prominent melodic role, are cast in a more supporting light for most of the piece, giving metric and harmonic reinforcement without taking too much focus away from the drums. The mallets do get their chance to stand out on their own and in duos with the drums, and by the end of the piece all of the instruments join forces in a joyful, unified texture.
-Colin MacDonald
Los Forwards began in the early 80s as a project to help me learn the operation of my first multitrack recorder. The original orchestration was for two marimbas and one percussion (it was a 4 track recorder and one track was click). Around the same time I was playing in an ensemble featuring percussion organized by Sal Ferreras. I brought the still unnamed Los Forwards to a rehearsal and with the addition of vibes, drums, more percussion, bass and guitar (to fit the group's instrumentation) it became a regular part of the ensemble's repertoire. When Sal asked me for the title of the piece all I could come up with at the time was Los Forwards (a small joke on lost for words, sorry!). Since that time (almost 30 years) Los Forwards has been used by many of Vancouver's percussionists, including myself, with many orchestrations for recitals, concerts and various percussion ensemble presentations. This is, I believe, the first time it has been recorded (other than my own home demos) and I'm delighted that Fringe Percussion has included it on their debut cd release. Thank you Jonathan, Martin, Danny and Brian.
-Graham Boyle
Fringe Percussion is a Vancouver-based ensemble dedicated to presenting works from the contemporary Western art music and non-Western repertories. It strives to strengthen the voice of local composers and global musical traditions through innovative programming, artistic collaboration, and dedication to musical excellence.
The ensemble’s repertoire connects to the expressive cultural traditions of Bali, China, Cuba, Japan, Ghana, and India. Fringe Percussion recognizes the vitality, beauty, and artistry inherent to world musics, and wishes to bring them to wider audiences. In so doing, Fringe Percussion’s perspective is especially important. It communicates with many generations and many cultures, connecting well to the multifaceted, multicultural nature of the contemporary music scene.
The members of Fringe Percussion are Jonathan Bernard, Martin Fisk, Brian Nesselroad and Daniel Tones.
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