With contributions by Carver Snyder
Blue makes Michael Burritt think “of hope and good things.”
He has assigned that color to a few of his pieces, including one just recorded by the Eastman Percussion Ensemble: “Blue Soul.” Burritt takes on a journey through overlapping musical worlds, over about nine minutes of music.
There’s lots going on rhythmically, but it often coalesces into a sort of melodic shimmer of pop harmonies. The music never lets you linger in one place for too long, with bright high bells pulling in one direction followed by a turn both sudden and seamless into a space of low resonance. As the harmonica sounds, the last notes convey — transcendence? Peace? Farewell?
If this single whets your appetite for more melodic percussion, check out “Viñao” with the Eastman Percussion Ensemble and Burritt joining forces with Chicago’s Third Coast Percussion.
Here you get Burritt performing alongside his current and former students in music by London-based composer Alejandro Viñao, who started out in Argentina and spent time at the music research center IRCAM in Paris. He treats these instruments very differently than Burritt, following different threads.
It’s a treat to hear Burritt play the showy “Khan Variations,” a solo that he helped commission with other percussionists that has become a contest favorite. The album also includes tributes to experimental composer Conlon Nancarrow and Burritt himself in a set of variations.
The heart of the album is the piece “Water,” a suite in three movements evoking tides, rivers and wild rain.
Now, it’s something else to hear percussion instruments live, so mark your calendar for the Eastman Percussion Ensemble’s concert this fall, October 27 at Kodak Hall at Eastman Theatre.
Mona Seghatoleslami is music director at WXXI Classical. Carver Snyder is a classically trained percussionist and linguistics student interning with WXXI this summer.
