Nicolai’s Objection
for two steel drums and vibraphone
Commissioned by The Australia Council for the Arts
Performances
Drumming Grupo De Percussão
• 25th Feb 2006, National Theatre, Porto, Portugal
• 14th Feb 2006, Madrid, Spain
• World Premiere, 11th February 2006, Valencia, Spain
About Nicolai's Objection
Nicolai’s Objection is a choreography of percussive attacks: a composition based upon physical movement in space. The title stems from Nicolai Lobachevsky, a historical figure whom postulated a new type of pan-geometry which sat outside of then understood models. The metaphor of ‘geometry’ runs throughout the work defining a unique relationship between physical movement and musical structure.
Steel Drums are unique among pitched percussion instruments in that the pitches are arranged in a two-dimensional pattern. (The notes of most tuned percussion instruments are laid-out in a similar fashion to the chromatic keyboard, that is, in one-dimension from bottom to top.) The non-sequential pitch arrangement of steel drums not only results in a very compact palette of available pitches, but also in a more complex interplay between physical movement and melodic contour. It is this physical interplay that forms the principal musical subject of Nicolai’s Objection. Melodic themes and development are based upon the geometric motions of the performers and their subsequent transformations across space. In the tradition of work-rhythms, such as Balinese rice-pounding music, where rhythm not only generates creativity out of ‘mundane’ tasks, but enables multiple persons to work simultaneously without "colliding", so too with Nicolai’s Objection the percussionists engage in an agile interlocking dance, visual as well as sonic.
Access Nicolai's Objection
An audio excerpt and the score of this work may be available to download on the Music page
