Improving the practice and performance of contemporary music

Mani. Matta

text written autumn 2011 by Tom De Cock

General information

  • Percussion solo for marimba, 2 log drums, woodblock, China gong
  • duration 18’
  • First performance in 2009 by Christian Dierstein
  • You can order the score online by sending an email to billone.office@gmail.com

In Mani. Matta multiple sound spaces coexist: a marimba, two log drums surmounted by a woodblock, a gong hanging over the player’s chest. The sound attack on the instruments is designed to extend their timbral possibilities. Sticks made of different material and thickness that hit on various points of the marimba bars, the log drums, and the gong. The hands can either touch lightly or strike the instruments with fingers, knuckles, and palms.

Matta is the name of an American artist, the late Gordon Matta-Clark (1943-1978), who was famous in the ‘70s for his architectonic works known as building cuts, which were based on the principle that sections of abandoned buildings were removed so that perspective could be broken and/or opened.(1)


Practical difficulties
Technical difficulties
Interpretational difficulties

Notes

  1. Text reproduced with permission from www.pierluigibillone.com
  2. All sketches that were used in the text are taken from the scores and the legends of the described pieces. © Pierluigi Billone.