Rock Paper Scissors (2018)
Percussion Quartet
6:30
Rock Paper Scissors is a piece for percussion quartet in which each player plays on two woodblocks, three tuned metal pipes, and two drums. This piece has two sets of program notes, and it is up to the listener to decide which set of program notes they prefer.
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The title Rock Paper Scissors refers to both the instrumentation and the character of the piece. The three sound families of wood, skin, and metal could be thought of as analogous to rock, paper, and scissors respectively, and each of the sound families in the piece has a different “personality”; the woods play hocketed 16th note material, the skins play aggressive polyrhythms and impacts, and the metals suggest a 5:4 metric modulation figure. As the piece goes on, each sound family exerts influence on the others, though in the end they mostly maintain their individual characteristics.
This piece tells the tale of the Strami wood elves and their search for the Jewels of Time. The piece begins with the elves (represented by the woodblocks) mining through a mountain in search of the Jewels. After a hard day’s work, the elves take a well-earned rest, in which the elf foreman regales the workers with tales of the Jewels (represented by the metal pipes) and their time-bending powers. The miner elves are reinvigorated by these stories and return to work with a renewed spirit. The very next day, they begin to uncover the first signs of the Jewels – but with discovery also comes danger. The Guardian Dragon (represented by the drums) slowly wakes from his centuries-long slumber and catches the elves off guard with a sneak attack! A brief confrontation ensues, but the elves are able to escape by using the Jewels to travel back in time. For a moment, they believe they are safe, but the Dragon attacks again – it appears that she too has time-traveling powers! Though the elves suffer some casualties, they are able to mount a daring escape from the mountain, and finally the Jewels of Time are theirs! With the power of time travel at their disposal, the Strami elves are finally able to exert their political influence on all of the other elf tribes with impunity. The piece ends with the grandchildren of the heroes telling the tale of the miner elves’ bravery, ensuring that their legacy of heroism lives forever.
This piece was composed for the Four/One Percussion Quartet (Mitchell Beck, Paul Millette, Steven Partida, and Russell Wharton) and was premiered at Indiana University on March 25, 2018.
Most of this piece is based around hocketed, rhythmically-interlocking figures, played on instruments with very short articulations. In order for the composite rhythm to sound “clean”, each player must perform their part with metronomic accuracy, thoughtful balance, and possess a deep understanding of the other parts. My experience in the marching arts has probably guided my preference towards clean, accurate performances, and that is certainly the performance quality I had in mind when writing this piece.
However, there is something to be said for the human quality of imperfection. Technology has enabled us to create music that sounds “perfect”. In fact, the more that human beings are removed from the process of music-making, the more “perfect” it becomes. As of this writing (October 2023), we have not yet seen the boom of music produced by artificial intelligence… but it is coming.
In that light, there is a pleasing, analog quality to human imperfection. Rock Paper Scissors is a very difficult piece to play perfectly, but some amount of imperfection can be interesting. Most performers will usually aim to perform its interlocking rhythms with perfection so as not to produce any “flams”, but in fact, sometimes those flams can sound quite nice. The instruments in this piece all have short, bright articulations, especially the pipes and the woodblocks, and there can be an enjoyable, almost ASMR-like quality to the varied spacing of the articulations between players. As a listener, you may have to turn off the perfectionist side of your brain to fully appreciate this. Allow the sounds of these instruments to, as a friend once put it, “feel good on your eardrums”.
I worked on this piece with a composition teacher at IU during my graduate studies. He spoke to this exact quality of pleasing imperfection, but at the time I didn’t buy it. I told him that this piece was supposed to be performed with rigid precision, and that was the only acceptable performance quality. He insisted that some degree of imperfection would be more interesting…and of course, years later, I realized he was right.
Reflection
Why are there two sets of program notes?
The first set of program notes is an honest accounting of the nature of the piece, and they possess a seriousness that one usually associates with classical/contemporary music. However, they are dry and boring to read, and in my opinion do very little to elevate the experience of the listener.
The second set of program notes is much more interesting, though they are much less serious. This piece was written for my grad school quartet of myself, Mitchell Beck, Paul Millette, and Steven Partida. Our unsupervised rehearsals often devolved into silly, outrageous joke-fests, and though we were not always as productive as we could have been, I look back fondly on all the laughter and friendship we shared. It seemed fitting to provide a set of program notes that captured the spirit of our little group.
Classical/contemporary music is often performed in an environment of heightened formality. There are many rules for how one conducts oneself onstage, and the audience is expected to be silent and motionless until they are allowed to clap, at which point they are expected to do so. For some, this formality elevates the experience, but for some, it diminishes it.
The two sets of program notes in Rock Paper Scissors allow the audience to choose how seriously they take the piece. I find that when humor and spontaneity are allowed to exist in classically formal spaces, audiences and performers alike are able to relax, giving everyone involved a better experience.