About objects, things, acts and air: a (self)critical view of percussive works and concepts

Abstract

After 42 years of career, composition and performance, the author discusses some specific concepts that have permeated his work with percussion. Here he draws on some particular compositional proposals to portray contexts, concepts and principles in his production. An initial overview of his pieces is then presented, as well as background information and fundamental concepts that make it possible to understand the conceptual and artistic panorama that underpinned them. The elements selected for discussion and which address different works are: a) timbre (contrasting multiple percussion and the use of a single instrument), b) notation (offering just two different examples that allow us to observe some of the main concepts), c) questioning the musical work and the role of the performer, d) physicality and the use of other senses in musical works. The article then provides a more comprehensive understanding of the author’s production, based on the gaze, experiences, experiments and reports of the composer/performer/percussionist himself, showing, at different levels, how this production raises questions about various artistic and percussive paradigms.