DATE: March 28, 2008
CONTACT:
Paul Buyer, (864) 656-3857
pbuyer@clemson.edu
WRITER:
Glenn Hare, (864) 656-1478
ghare@clemson.edu
Percussion ensemble and steel band concert to feature West African music
CLEMSON — The Clemson University Percussion Ensemble will perform “Kpanlogo,” a popular West African drumming style at its Friday, April 25, performance at the Brooks Center for the Performing Arts.
Set to begin at 8 p.m., the free concert will showcase the percussion ensemble and the Clemson University Steel Band.
Leading the Clemson University Percussion Ensemble in the playing of “Kpanlogo” is guest artist Mike Vercelli, a percussion professor at the University of Arizona and a West African music specialist.
“‘Kpanlogo’ is a popular recreational dance style found in Ghana among the Ga people,” explained Paul Buyer, Clemson’s director of percussion studies. “The piece that Mike will lead features traditional African instrumentation, including the gankogui (double bell), djembe (a popular West African drum), axatse (gourd rattle) and several Kpanlogo drums (conga-shaped drums from Ghana) played in a call-and-response style with polyrhythms and other musical characteristics.”
Vercelli, who also will perform a solo composition, is the director of the World Music Gang at the University of Arizona. He has traveled extensively in Ghana and West Africa, studying with Bernard Woma at his Dagara Music Center outside of Accra, Ghana, and with leading Ghanaian musical artists.
In addition to “Kpanlogo,” the 13-member percussion ensemble will perform “Promise Music,” a composition originally conceived for marimba solo and small ensemble accompaniment. “The arrangement we will perform is an expansion of the original work that includes nine equal parts,” said Buyer.
John Cage’s “Dance Music for Elfrid Ide” is a percussion sextet composed by one of America’s most recognized post-World War II avante garde composers. The composition calls for percussion sextet, playing tom-toms, log drum, cowbells, rattle, claves and whisk.
“It was composed in 1940 when John Cage served on the dance faculty at Mills College in Oakland, California,” Buyer said. “It was discovered several years ago in the school’s archive. It was written to accompany the graduate thesis performance by Elfrid Ide in 1941. The piece reflects Cage’s spontaneous and improvisational style. The original manuscript shows Cage’s hand-written cuts and simplifications.”
The ensemble also will perform “Headlines” by Julia Davila. “This is a novelty piece that uses newspapers,” Buyer said. “The musicians ‘play’ the newspapers in a variety of ways. They roll them up and open them. They drum with them. They slap them hand to hand. They even rip, crush and toss them.”
The remainder of the concert will showcase the Clemson University Steel Band. The band will perform “Pan Squared,” by Los Angeles-based musician and steel drum tuner Chris Wabich. The tune is included on the band’s newest recording, “One Small Step for Pan.”
It will play “Jouvert Music,” a classic steel-band tune, and “My Band” by Ray Holman,” said Buyer.
For more information about the Clemson University Percussion Ensemble and Clemson University Steel Band joint concert, to go www.clemson.edu/Brooks or call the box office at (864) 656-7787 from 1 to 5 p.m. Monday-Friday.