Percussion Extravaganza

LAST WEDNESDAY saw the launch of an interesting new series dedicated to 20th-century music. This series of concerts, which is being sponsored by the Malta Stock Exchange, is being held at St. James Cavalier Centre for Creativity.

The inaugural recital saw percussionist Renzo Spiteri lecture and perform on percussion instruments. The hour-long programme consisted of an alternation between formal instruction and practical display, improvisation and performance off written scores.

The instructive complement of the evening took the audience on a cursory journey through the percussion family as present in folk cultures and as developed in the western world. It dealt with the standard materials used in the manufacturing of such instruments and it gave examples of some of the timbres produced through various techniques. 

Essentially, anything that produces a sound by being shaken, struck, plucked or rubbed could be termed a percussion instrument. Furthermore, the percussive potential of certain basic raw materials , such as ceramic, wood and metal can he found in everyday materials and products including alloy wheels and oil tanks.

Percussion instruments are generally divided into two main categories - idiophones (instruments which produce sound from their own elastic material) and membranophones (instruments which use taut membranes to produce sound). These may also be split into two subdivisions - those of definite pitch and those of indefinite pitch.

The formal part of Renzo Spiteri's practical display featured membranophones of indefinite pitch although instruments of different sizes ensured a certain variety in tone.

Two congas and two bongos formed the instrumental composition of Charles Camilleri’s three-movement Fantasia concertante No. 3.

In the first, rather quick, movement a rhythmic motif provided the foundation on which the structure of the work was developed. Tremolos with punctuation were particularly effective in this initial section.

The second movement began with a slow, meditative tempo and low dynamics that provided suitable contrast with the outer movements. Once more, there was the use of repeated and varied motifs to construct the movement. The middle section was enlivened with a play of tempos that presented material with considerable technical and musical demands. The tremolos abruptly shifting from one instrument to the other were remarkably well handled.

There was more of an improvisational quality about the third movemerit although certain apparently free passages were followed by rigid ostinatos. The execution of this movement was a display of the musician's technical ability and highly developed finger muscles.

Whereas in the Camilleri work all four single-headed membranophones of Latin American origin were struck in different ways and in different positions of the instrument by the musician’s hands, in Pezzo per DueTamburi by Gabriele Bianchi the clash between wood of the snare drumsticks and the taut parchment of the double-headed drums with snares provided the characteristic brilliant tone.

In this work the various characteristic strokes, including the single left-right stroke, the four-stroke ruff and the roll, were used to effectively depict situations of conflict and harmony between the two instruments in play.

The rest of the programme was largely improvisational. It featured the use of western and non-western, conventional/traditional and unconventional instruments. Here, timbres, tones and moods were explored and exploited through varied and contorted rhythmic motifs and tempos. This was a continuation of the technical display witnessed in the formal complement of the programme and it was a confirmation of Spiteri's accomplishment and musicality.

Furthermore, through the performance of his own work, with which he concluded the evening, the percussionist brought together all the theoretical and practical elements discussed and displayed during the evening. He used idiophones and membranophones, instruments of definite and indefinite pitch, ethnic and orchestral percussion and materials and objects from everyday life to orchestrate a work that produced a world of soundscapes ranging from the transcendental to the belicose.

Martina Caruana

The Sunday Times, October 28, 2001

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