Lansky-Threads (SP)-B/2V/Cro./Tuned metal pipes/P

Threads, written by Paul Lansky for So Percussion in 2005, is a 'cantata' for percussion quartet in ten short movements. There are three 'threads' that are interwoven in the piece: Arias and Preludes that focus on the metallic pitched sounds; Choruses in which drumming predominates; and Recitatives made largely from Cage-like 'noise' instruments. The aims of the different threads are to highlight the wide range of qualitities that percussion instruments are capable of, from lyrical and tender to forceful and aggressive, and weave them into one continuous texture.

Number of Players: 4
Level of Difficulty: Grade 5
Instrumentation:

Player I: Vibraphone, Timbales, Doumbeck, Crotales, Temple Blocks

Player II: Vibraphone, Noise-Makers, Low Toms

Player III: Glockenspeil, Cowbell, Agogo, Claves, 4 Un-Tuned Bottles, bongos, Congas

Player IV: Metal Pipes, Flowerpots, High Toms

Paul Lansky is one of the most prominent and accessible of modern American composers who write primarily for the medium of computer-generated sound. He has made advances in purely technical areas, especially those of Linear Prediction Coding, which he developed for his own first computer-generated pieces, and Cmix (in the 1990s), a set of programs which he has made freely available. In the areas of theory and analysis, Lansky has collaborated closely with George Perle, a former teacher of his, in developing the latter's ideas of "twelve-tone tonality," a way of combining serial techniques with pitch-centered motion.