New Zealand Percussion Music - Farr, Volume Pig; Harris, Ricochet; Young, Tongues; McClashan, Work Songs; Downes, Painting with Breath; Hickman, Cube; Strike Percussion Ensemble New Zealand

1 Volume Pig Gareth Farr (11:21)
2 Ricochet Ross Harris (7:35)
3 Iron Tongues Miriama Young (5:05)
4 - 6 Work Songs Don McGlashan (9:43)
7 Painting with Breath David Downes (6:03)
8 - 12 Cube Murray Hickman (23:21)
13 Taku Manu E trad., arr. George Upu (5:43)


Total Duration 68:42
MMT2030
24-bit Digital Stereo Recording
© 2000 HRL Morrison Music Trust
P 2000 HRL Morrison Music Trust

VOLUME PIG – Gareth Farr
volume pig \vóllyoom pig\ n 1 zool. a rare subspecies of the pig family, porcus amplificatus, normally found dwelling in the remote bogs of Southland, New Zealand. The creature’s unusual hunting tactics have long been a curiosity to zoologists; it confuses and stuns its prey by uttering a frantic succession of wild grunts, howls and piercing screams, causing the unfortunate victim to fall to the ground, covering its ears in extreme agony. 2 col. a person with a particular propensity for composing music of an unusually loud nature.

RICOCHET – Ross Harris
Ricochet was commissioned by STRIKE in 1999. The work is for three percussionists each playing an identical set of diverse instruments. The exact nature of the ensemble is left for the performers to choose, with the recommendation that wood, metal and skins be included. As STRIKE is known for its enormous collection of junk instruments, the players were requested to included some of these in the ensemble. Ricochet is packed with all manner of echo effects and canons, and weaves a fragmented path between synchronous and asynchronous rhythms.

IRON TONGUES – Miriama Young
In this piece, the instruments act as animate characters, "playing off" each other in circling games of extrovert display. They engage in an unravelling dialogue of fiery competition, a race to reach the end first, to be the biggest, the loudest, the most virtuosic. But as an ensemble they also surrender to moments of synchronicity and harmony.

The instruments are defined into three groups by their inherent characteristics – wood (marimba), metal (brake drums) and skins (tom-toms). The tom-toms are struck with bound bamboo sticks to give a distinctive quality of sound.

Iron tongues is dedicated to STRIKE.

WORK SONGS – Don McGlashan
What percussionists do with their bodies as they play, and while they wait for the next entry, makes a kind of ballet which can either be mesmerising or horrifying to watch (depending on the performer). In Work Songs, commissioned by the Auckland Philharmonia in 1989, I wanted to set up a piece where the choreography was as important as the sounds. The second movement even has silent passages, where the players can't play because they've misplaced their beaters. Apart from this lapse into musical theatre, though, it's a pattern piece, with the five players often working in three different time signatures. It's about the fluid, effortless motion of shared activity – that of a shearing gang, or the guys on the rubbish truck, or of a smooth pass along the back-line…I can't think of anyone better than STRIKE to play it.

PAINTING WITH BREATH – David Downes
The wind characters that appear in folklore and mythology all seem to have in common an unpredictable nature – they are depicted as devious entities who are not to be trusted. I like the idea that something so irresponsible as the wind could be married with something so regular and vital as the breath: the product of this marriage seems to me the essence of syncopation and dance.

Painting with Breath is composed principally for six long bamboo garden stakes. These are whipped through the air to create sound. The direction of each stroke, indicated in the score and worked out for the efficient execution of the rhythms, creates a kind of dance for the performers, who must use their entire bodies to deliver the required force. Naturally, they expend a lot of energy, and as the piece progresses they begin to breathe harder and more audibly. This is included as an additional element of the soundscape.

CUBE – Murray Hickman
Written for STRIKE's outdoor shows at the 1999 Melbourne International
Festival of the Arts, Cube was conceived as a work in which the visual and physical aspects of the performance were of equal importance to the musical element. The action takes place in adjoining three-metre cubes of scaffolding which have instruments – including roto-toms, tom-toms, hubcaps, and metal plates – attached to the sides and roof. Access to some of these is only via the players crouching down, leaping, climbing or hanging suspended from the scaffolding, and their choreographed performance involves continuous movement and physical interaction.

TAKU MANU E – trad., arr. George Upu
The Cook Islands are situated in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, south of
the equator. The 15 islands are naturally divided into southern and northern groups. The main islands of the southern group are Rarotonga, Aitutaki, Mangaia, Atiu, Mauke and Mitiaro. 1,000 kilometres north are the coral atolls Manihiki, Rakahanga, Pukapuka and Tongareva. The drummers of the Cook Islands employ both log drums and drums with skins, although there are distinct differences between the drumming styles of the northern and southern islands. The northern group uses higher pitched log drums, and also the tini, a cabin bread tin played in the manner of a European snare drum.

Taku Manu E ("my bird") has been arranged from traditional northern and southern Cook Island drumming rhythms. The inspiration for the piece is the idea of a bird flying from the southern islands to the northern group and back again.

The inclusion of the work on this recording is largely thanks to Bruce McKinnon, who as well as initiating the idea of a STRIKE log-drumming project, organised rehearsals with George Upu and the group's tour in November 2000