Program note
TROC — "barter" in French — was written at the request of Dane Richeson for LUPE, the Lawrence University Percussion Ensemble. The piece is built around the idea of exchange and reversal. Its overall form is palindromic, framing a central section that deliberately breaks the symmetry. The musical material — short cells built as close mirrors, propelled by driving 5/8 rhythms alternating with off-kilter quarter-note triplets within a 3/4 bar — is developed through additive and canonic processes.
The central section, marked by the shift from antiphonal congas to antiphonal snare drums, suspends the original 5/8 + 3/4 material in a more static, symmetrically harmonized space. Mirror canons form its structural basis. The final part, returning to the congas, presents the opening material in retrograde, with some elements further inverted vertically.
LUPE – Dane Richeson, conductor
Details
Instrumentation
Nine percussionists
Duration
9'
Date
2001
Sheet music
Available upon request
Commissioned by
Dane Richeson for LUPE
(Lawrence University Percussion Ensemble)
First performance
LUPE, Dane Richeson, conductor
Appleton, WI, June 2011