Released on Strike Percussion Ensemble’s CD New Zealand Percussion Music.
In Iron tongues the instruments act as animate characters, “playing off” each
other in circling games of showy display. They engage in an unravelling dialogue
of firey competition, a race to reach the end first, to be the biggest, the
loudest, the most virtousic. But as an ensemble they also surrender to moments
of synchronicity and harmony.
The instruments are defined into 3 groups by their inherent characteristics – marimba
for wood, brake drums for metal and skins are tom-toms. The tom-toms are struck
with bound bamboo sticks to produce a distinctive quality of sound. This work
was commissioned by Strike Percussion with support from Creative New Zealand.
|