limits

(2024)
for snare drum solo

Limits thematises the decades- (if not centuries-) old struggle of man against machine, the (futile?) effort of man to assert himself against his own creation and to prevail against the relentless mechanics of the machine.
I wrote limits in 2024 as a commission for the percussionist Sabrina Ma following our first collaboration on my composition surfaces_mirrors (2023) for percussion and piano. The second movement of surfaces_mirrors uses only electric vibrators as sound stimuli, which rattle on the surfaces of the piano and various percussion instruments, creating a multi-layered amorphous sound texture.
Now, Sabrina wanted me to write a solo piece for snare drum and vibrators that would push her ‘to the limits of what is possible’. Hence the title “limits”.
I decided to use two small drums in slightly different tunings in the work: one as the territory of the human player, the other as the domain of the electric-mechanical. While the first of the two drums is played by the performer with two sticks in a “classical” way, which unfolds into quite traditional-looking phrases of single strokes, accents and rolls, the second snare drum represents the entire man-made percussion that a percussionist faces every day: the vibrators move not only on the drumhead of the drum, but also on the preparations attached to the drum, namely a wooden bowl and a small gong. The three basic material categories of percussion (skin, wood and metal) are thus manifested in condensed form.
The competition between the two drums is fuelled by the specific movement and therefore touch of the vibrators. These produce a continuous band of fast strokes, which is interspersed with irregular accents due to the uncontrolled form of movement. The drum voice played by the musician confronts this structure on two levels and tries to outdo it: firstly on the level of speed through increasingly dense strokes and secondly on the level of accents, which become more and more frequent and exalted and also try to drown out the vibrators on a dynamic level. However, this is never quite possible, especially as the limited frequency spectrum of the snare drum is never able to completely cover the spectra of the preparations.
The percussionist is literally pushed to her limits in her endeavours, although the final section possibly hints at a resolution of the conflict through the change of perspective and of the handling of the machine.