J.B., Curved in Places for four percussionists, includes score and parts.
Want it now? Click here to purchase a digital copy of this product.
Review from Percussive Notes (2021):
J.B., Curved in Places
Frank McCarty
“J.B., Curved in Places” is part of a series of compositions called the Gravestone Canons intended as a love note to a dead composer. Composer Frank McCarty describes, “In this piece, one by one, the percussionists begin playing a two-part invention made of randomly-selected Bach fragments, spliced into a binary form. The music first assembles and then shifts in pitch and timbre while remaining fixed and coordinated in form. The pitches are then subsumed into larger rhythmic and metric contours. The coda quickly reverses the process, just before the point of ‘death’.”
Each player begins at the glockenspiel and moves, one after another, to eight instruments arranged in a circle. Accordingly, many written instructions are included with the score in addition to all the notated parts. The coordination of this work would prove difficult. In a world of “check the recording” or “check YouTube,” there is no recording easily found of this piece. I could see that being a potential barrier to programming the work; however, I don’t believe it should be. The instructions and parts are fairly clearly laid out and, with time, a proper interpretation of the work could certainly be performed.
This piece could work really well on a percussion ensemble concert or perhaps in an art gallery. The small amount of performance art required lends itself to the visual arts as well as the performing art scene.
—Justin Bunting
