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Some Things
Modeled after Warren Benson’s Three Dances for Solo Snare Drum, Eric Willie’s suite, Some Things provides a great recital piece for versatile percussionists. Catering to the advanced snare drummer, the three contrasting movements provide contrasting variety from movement to movement. Identifiable themes, fast, precision-bases gestures, timbre adaptation through touch, muffling techniques, roll/crush variation, and stick/brush/mallet variations will highlight the dexterity of the performer.
Some Things ships as a professionally bound folio, laid out in a way to eliminate the need for mid-movement page turns.
Performed by Eric Willie
Eric Willie has created a nifty suite of three movements for snare drum that will serve well as a festival piece for an advanced high school level student or as a recital piece for an undergraduate. The first movement is in 2/2 with a tempo of half note = 124. It makes use of both buzz and double-stroke rudimental-style rolls. Stickings are included throughout, which look unconventional at first but serve to help produce a flowing effect due to the use of double strokes for many of the eighth-note, sixteenth-note, and triplet patterns. There is much dynamic contrast in this short, 50-second movement, and the reoccur-ring thematic material gives it a “rondo” kind of formal arrangement.
Movement II calls for swizzle sticks and one wire brush. It begins with the player holding one swizzle stick with the wood end playing on the rims (stems up with “x” noteheads), and the other with the felt end playing on the drumhead (stems down with regular noteheads). Written in 12/8, the two sounds produce a two-part counterpoint effect. The rim stick performs quarter notes and eighth notes while the felt stick moves from quarters to eighths and finally to sixteenth notes. The accent patterns in the sixteenth-note rhythms shift to a duple arrangement that leads smoothly to the second half of the movement that is in 4/4. Here the right hand changes from wood on rim to felt on head, and the left replaces the swizzle stick with the wire brush. A similar two-level effect is created and is developed with the addition of dead strokes and rimshots with both the brush and stick. The end comes with a crescendo to fortissimo on the final sixteenth note of the last measure.
The final movement uses conventional drumsticks. It uses mixed meters including 9/8, 7/8, 13/8, 5/4, 4/4, and 3/4. Triple and double strokes abound throughout. Buzz and double-stroke rolls along with flams are added, and the mixed meters create a disjointed feeling with shifting downbeats. Again, dynamic contrast is an important part of the music as it moves from fortissimo to piano and everything in between. The piece ends with two crescendos from piano to fortissimo.
There seems to be a new approach to writing snare drum solos for the concert hall that utilizes the wide variety of sounds and effects that are possible on the drum along with employing different kinds of sticks and brushes. This has taken the snare drum in new, very musical, directions, and this solo is very much in that vain.
—Tom Morgan
Percussive Notes
Vol. 54, No. 5, November 2016
Modeled after Warren Benson’s Three Dances for Solo Snare Drum, Eric Willie’s suite, Some Things provides a great recital piece for versatile percussionists. Catering to the advanced snare drummer, the three contrasting movements provide contrasting variety from movement to movement. Identifiable themes, fast, precision-bases gestures, timbre adaptation through touch, muffling techniques, roll/crush variation, and stick/brush/mallet variations will highlight the dexterity of the performer.
Some Things ships as a professionally bound folio, laid out in a way to eliminate the need for mid-movement page turns.
Performed by Eric Willie
Eric Willie has created a nifty suite of three movements for snare drum that will serve well as a festival piece for an advanced high school level student or as a recital piece for an undergraduate. The first movement is in 2/2 with a tempo of half note = 124. It makes use of both buzz and double-stroke rudimental-style rolls. Stickings are included throughout, which look unconventional at first but serve to help produce a flowing effect due to the use of double strokes for many of the eighth-note, sixteenth-note, and triplet patterns. There is much dynamic contrast in this short, 50-second movement, and the reoccur-ring thematic material gives it a “rondo” kind of formal arrangement.
Movement II calls for swizzle sticks and one wire brush. It begins with the player holding one swizzle stick with the wood end playing on the rims (stems up with “x” noteheads), and the other with the felt end playing on the drumhead (stems down with regular noteheads). Written in 12/8, the two sounds produce a two-part counterpoint effect. The rim stick performs quarter notes and eighth notes while the felt stick moves from quarters to eighths and finally to sixteenth notes. The accent patterns in the sixteenth-note rhythms shift to a duple arrangement that leads smoothly to the second half of the movement that is in 4/4. Here the right hand changes from wood on rim to felt on head, and the left replaces the swizzle stick with the wire brush. A similar two-level effect is created and is developed with the addition of dead strokes and rimshots with both the brush and stick. The end comes with a crescendo to fortissimo on the final sixteenth note of the last measure.
The final movement uses conventional drumsticks. It uses mixed meters including 9/8, 7/8, 13/8, 5/4, 4/4, and 3/4. Triple and double strokes abound throughout. Buzz and double-stroke rolls along with flams are added, and the mixed meters create a disjointed feeling with shifting downbeats. Again, dynamic contrast is an important part of the music as it moves from fortissimo to piano and everything in between. The piece ends with two crescendos from piano to fortissimo.
There seems to be a new approach to writing snare drum solos for the concert hall that utilizes the wide variety of sounds and effects that are possible on the drum along with employing different kinds of sticks and brushes. This has taken the snare drum in new, very musical, directions, and this solo is very much in that vain.
—Tom Morgan
Percussive Notes
Vol. 54, No. 5, November 2016
