Includes score, text, and tape (CD).
Want it now? Click here to purchase a digital copy of this product.
Review from Percussive Notes (2021):
Bucky’s View
Martin Sweidel
Martin Sweidel’s 1984 composition “Bucky’s View” is an ensemble piece for two narrators, tape, and three percussionists. The publisher does not assign a difficulty level or duration to this piece, but I would attach at least a “medium-advanced” level to this work due to the use of extended techniques and timing with the narrators.
The narrators’ text for this work seems to be the focus, with the percussion being the frame around it. Most of the percussion music seems almost hypnotic in nature with plenty of meter changes that creates a certain instability at times. The third percussionist will have a large multi-percussion setup that supports a vibraphone player and someone who plays marimba, large cymbal, and small tam-tam. Several instances in this work are based on events and duration in seconds, rather than on measures.
It’s difficult to predict how today’s audience would feel about the text for this work; it speaks about war, evolution, revolution, and overpopulation, among other things. A potential player of this work should read the text carefully before programming.
—Ben Cantrell
