Growth I – "Snare Drum Concerto" for Yoko Ono

(2021) 14' / for solo snare drum, baritone saxophone, accordion, and violin
written for the Concept Store Quartet

also version for sextet: solo snare drum, flute (piccolo), bass clarinet, violin, violoncello, and piano
commissioned by the Mishima Contemporary Music Days and premiered in May 2023

Movement 1: Wilted recitatives revitalized
Movement 2: A Kotsuzumi and Kagkegoe sandwich dipped in cultural appropriation 
Movement 3: John Lennon thunderclouds with Yoko Ono lighting bolts

The premiere performance by the Concept Store Quartet with Alicja Pilarczyk (violin), Pablo González Balaguer (saxophone), Nejc Grm (accordion), and Jeanne Larrouturou (percussion) took place on February 15th, 2022 in BKA-Theater, Berlin. The composition was commissioned with funds from the Fachausschuss Musik BS/BL.

a performance from Radziejowice, Poland

Instrumentation

Violin
Soprano Sax in Bb
Accordion
Solo Percussion
Snare Drum with mallets, sticks, two super ball mallets (half-spheres), and 20 ad-lib. such as brushes, a carrot, a banana, a plastic rose, a sock, a shoe, a rubber chicken, etc.)

In the third movement, the following text excerpt from Yoko Ono is used as a click track of sorts for the percussionist and only heard by her or him:

Send the Onochord message, "I – love – you", by repeatedly blinking the light in the frequencies and the durations required for the message. From ships, from the top of the mountains, from buildings, using the whole building, in town squares, from the sky, and to the sky. Keep sending the message to the end of the year and beyond. Keep sending the message everywhere on the Earth and to the universe. Keep sending. For individuals, send a message by hand, "I – love – you". Or using flashlights. "I – love – you", "I – love – you", "I – love – you", "I – love – you", "I – love – you", …

Composer's note

It is said that Oliver Messien and Jean Sibelius were syntesthetes who saw colors while listening to music. I myself see geometric, undulating, wafting forms, and when I look at fine art, I often hear sounds in return. In my "Growth" series, I compose music imagining that it is seen, smelled, felt, or touched. The basic rule for Growth is that each work consists of three movements, and for each movement a found sound object serves as a point of departure – a kind of sourdough starter – from which the conceptual, rhythmic, harmonic, or structural substructure of a movement can ferment or sprout. The sound object can be a historical music recording, a field recording, or an interview and it may be partially audible in some form or entirely not at all.

The three sources of inspiration for the Violin Concerto are recognizable in the titles of the movements: In the first movement A dehydrated, pulverized, and then reconstituted (with lumps) 1903 recording of Joseph Joachim playing Brahms's Hungarian Dance No. 1; in the second, Isaac Stern speaking in 1999 about the founding of the National Endowment of Arts seen through a thick layer of nostalgia's sweet molasses; and in the third The Hupfeld Phonoliszt-Violina playing Chopin's Nocturne Op. 9, no. 2, frozen, broken in shards, and randomly reassembled.

The weight of the instrument’s tradition was decisive for the selection of objects in the Violin Concerto. But in the case of the Snare Drum Concerto, the non-European origin and the military role of the snare drum were decisive for the selection. The movements are called wilted recitatives revitalized, a nod to the underdeveloped parlando qualities of the snare drum; A Kotsuzumi and Kagkegoe sandwich dipped in cultural appropriation; and lastly, John Lennon thunderclouds with Yoko Ono lighting bolts with Yoko Ono's Ono-Chord message serving as a click track only the soloist can hear: „I love you“.

- Mike Svoboda in February 2022

Audio technic

In movement 3, a small loudspeaker – mounted in a megaphone and on a stand – is placed close to the ear of the percussionist, perhaps 20-30 cm away. The audio played through this speaker (left channel of the stereo audio file) is heard by some of the audience members, but not necessarily all, only when the musicians are playing piano or less. The right channel of the audio file (a heartbeat) is played through a second loudspeaker suitable for bass frequencies placed behind the players. 

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