Music for Wood and Strings, by Bryce Dessner (Sō Percussion)

Music for Wood and Strings, by Bryce Dessner Performed by Sō Percussion Jason Treuting, Adam Sliwinski, Josh Quillen, Eric Cha-Beach Audio/Video: Evan Chapman --- More information about the piece can be found here: Check out the piece on Bandcamp: Remix from the members of Bon Iver: --- ABOUT THE PIECE: Music for Wood and Strings (2013) For several years I have been experimenting with simple chorales in my music that utilize triadic chord inversions that are aligned in complex rhythm patterns to create a kaleidoscopic effect of harmony. These feature heavily in my work for orchestra and two guitars, St Carolyn by the Sea (2011), and the writing for my song cycle, The Long Count (2009).   While I have used this technique on guitars and strings, I have not had the opportunity to apply it to percussion instruments. For this new Sō Percussion piece I have been working with instrument builder Aron Sanchez (Blue Man Group, Buke and Gase) to design four dulcimer-like instruments to be played by the quartet.  These are simply designed double course string instruments which are played like a dulcimer, but which are specifically built and tuned to implement a more evolved hybrid of the chorale hocket. Each instrument is amplified using piezo pickups and will have 8 double-course strings tuned to two harmonies.  With the use of dulcimer mallets, the quartet players can easily sound either harmony, or play individual strings, melodies, and drone tremolos.  There are alto, two tenors and a bass instrument which can play fretted chromatic bass lines. With these elements as well as a few pieces of auxiliary percussion - bass drum, wood block – the work is about 35 minutes long. - Bryce Dessner --- SOUNDS USED IN THIS VIDEO: Most of the time Sō Percussion’s videos display the versatility and expressiveness of Vic Firth’s sticks and mallets. One of our favorite things about Vic Firth is the fact that they are just as interested in creativity as they are in selling sticks. We see this investment time and time again in their many educational activities and fantastic online resources for percussionists. Music for Wood and Strings combines the sound world of an electric guitar and dulcimer with the percussionist’s toolkit. As you can probably gather from this video, the main implements are simple #2 wooden pencils. These pencils actually started out as placeholders as we searched for a “better,” more permanent solution. They turned out to be perfect, mainly because a fully amplified string needs very little to get it going! For this piece, we decided not to use any pedal effects such as distortion or delay. By wrapping the writing side of the pencil with soft moleskin and striking with the metal eraser-holder on the other side, we created two distinctly different timbres with each pencil. Beyond that, we explored all manor of bowing, plucking, and using the legno (wooden) part of the bow. For bowing, we used smaller sized violin bows that were created for children. - So Percussion --- FOLLOW US! Facebook: Twitter: Instagram: