Original title Timbres
Commissioned by the CBC in 1970, this work requires one performer and sixty percussion instruments. Its original title—Timbres—captures Weinzweig’s goal to explore “the colour spectrum of percussion through the manipulation of beaters and hands on various striking areas of wood, metal, and membrane instruments.”
In order to enhance the drama of hurrying “around the stage,” Weinzweig groups the instruments into five stations around the stage. Four timpani (two each at Stations 1 and 3) are the main sound source and provide coherence to the hundreds of timbral varieties throughout the work, which include pitched, non-pitched, metallic, non-metallic, scratching, and haunting sounds. Over the fourteen sections and four metronome tempi, the performer demonstrates the theatrical potential of, what Weinzweig calls, “the natural broadly-physical gestures of the percussionist.”
Written by Alexa Woloshyn