FRICTION (2022)

for four players
duration: approximately 9 minutes

Written for Matchstick Percussion as part of Sō Percussion Summer Institute 2022 and premiered in Taplin Auditorium. Presented at Penn State New Music Festival 2023.

recording:
Corey Sittinger | player 1
Zach Wilson | player 2
Ben Hausman | player 3
Malcolm Taylor | player 4

July 23rd, 2022

FRICTION FRICTION is written as a musical role-playing game, centering playfulness and expressive character in musical performance, and informing sonic production through a character’s way of being. Each player is taking on a character with their own material, rhythmic, and interactive identity. Each identity has consistent characteristics which the player applies in their interactions with both their own material area and those of others. These characteristics include:

• gesture

• dynamic

• articulation

• tempo

• flow

• rhythm

Improvisation upon the defined characteristic traits includes departures and exploration pushing the boundaries of their identity, developing and transforming, but the character’s coming-to-life is built thoughtfully out of the original provided musical information. Some characters are more conversational, more adaptive, more in their own zone, or more imitative than others. Each area also has a set of questions or prompts for each player, encouraging expressive direction and further guiding their character’s interactions as the structure of the piece evolves.