February 11, 2019

  • Mesmerizing Mallet Work Featuring Music by John Psathas

     

    The John Psathas Percussion Project, volume 1
    Percussion: Justin Alexander, Brian Baldauff, Omar Carmenates, Tommy Dobbs,
    Emma Gierszal, Justin Lamb, Melinda Leoce, Brian Nozny,
    Ryan Patterson, Luis Rivera;
    Daniel Koppelman, piano.
    Navona Records 6204
    Total Time:  73:22
    Recording:   ****/****
    Performance: ****/****

    A collection of music for percussion by New Zealand composer John Psathas (b. 1966) is featured in this first volume of works by the popular composer.  The arrangements are all by Omar Carmenates who first recorded a piece by the composer for a 2013 album.  Psathas then suggested some additional pieces that might work well for percussion and the result is this new album of seven new arrangements of the composer’s work.  His work has minimalist qualities blended with folk rhythms.

    The Greek roots of the composer can be heard in the two works that frame the album, Corybas and Aegean.  In the former, Psalthas explores a fascinating Macedonian rhythmic pattern in 17/8 that is broken into groupings of 7, 6, and 4.  Originally written for piano trio, the transformation here allows for some great challenges to the multiple performers who must also get this inner pulse in place in the midst of syncopations, accents and variations of primary material.  The pitched mallet percussion create an undulating and mesmerizing undercurrent as other ideas gradually appear in the mix and a melodic line emerges.  It moves like a long arc with a subtle opening that grows a bit only to fade away at the end.

    In the three-movement Piano Quintet, the keyboard instrument is retained for the texture.   The work blends Greek folk music while also creating nods to contemporary composers Arvo Part, Alfred Schnittke, and Jack Brody as well as the intricate work of Bach.  Here too, repeated motifs bubble about with a resulting shimmering quality in the opening movement.  The piano enters with a more contemporary statement with motive that explore its registers, and even some interior brushing of strings.  It adds a more dissonant bit to the earlier material as it becomes more assertive but also will pick up on the opening arpeggiated ideas.  This allows us to further hear how a single shift in pitch changes the general quality of the harmony.  The central movement becomes a bit more intense and dramatic exploring a variety of intriguing sounds.  A strong major harmony creates a sense of hope as the piece comes to its conclusion in the final movement.

    Justin Alexander is featured in Drum Dances.  This work was originally commissioned by Dame Evelyn Glennie.  The music explores rock and jazz music (especially popping in the third movement) of the 1980s and 1990s.  The drum set provides the rhythmic departures against which other pitched percussion interact.  The musical lines explore more diverse scalar ideas that have a decided modern feel as they flirt about to create extended lines.  It is quite interesting to hear the way these various rhythmic ideas bounce off one another across the four movements.  All of this explodes into an exciting finale.

    The three-movement Muisca was originally for guitar.  Vibraphone takes over the melodic aspects of the piece with the rhythm and harmony relegated to marimba.  The music has a slightly Spanish flavor, with the rhythms feeling more African in nature, with perhaps a touch of jazz, inspired here by collaborations between Gary Burton and Chick Corea.

    The album closes with three brief works, including the aforementioned Aegean.  Matre’s Dance is another work that Glennie commissioned that was taken from one of the composer’s early violin pieces.  Science fiction fans may recognize the reference here to Frank Herbert’s Dune novels where the dance is referred to as a dance to the death.  A protective eye watches over the listener in Jettatura which was inspired by a series of unfortunate events during one of the composer’s trips to Greece.

    Percussion albums can seem a bit unusual to the uninitiated but those concerns can be dispatched with easily as the use of vibraphones and marimbas helps provide an easy entry into the discovery of this music.  Psathas’ blend of minimalist techniques with folk meters creates some exciting music that mesmerizes the listener and draws them into the music.  Each of the pieces here provide enough variety to make the album fly by even with its generous length.  The album is also quite excellent sonically.