Triangle Trio

Juri Seo

General Info

Year of Published: 2016
Series: Portable Percussion Series
Duration: 00:07:30
Cost: $18.00

Instrumentation

Player 1: Triangle
Player 2: Castanets
Player 3: Tambourine

Program Note

I spent my childhood in South Korea in the 1980s where expensive classical instruments were not available in public schools. Most of the music classes were conducted in a crowded classroom of 50-something children; the triangles, castanets, and tambourines comprised the rhythm section while melodions and recorders played tunes. In Triangle Trio, the second piece from my Portable Percussion Series. I wished to reconnect with the unrefined yet magical joy of noise-making I experienced in those boisterous classrooms. In the end, the inspiration survived only in the instrumentation. The music became exceedingly virtuosic to the point of irony, with the ensemble executing intricate composite rhythms and tempo changes. Triangle Trio unfolds in eleven cycles, with each cycle developing some characteristic element from the initial rhythmic motive. Five opening cycles are for the triangle alone. The rest of the instruments join in and they collectively build toward grooves, progressively becoming more continuous as the piece unfolds. After a written-out ritardando at the end of the piece, the opening rhythm is restated at 1/16th of the initial tempo, transformed beyond recognition.

Works for Percussion by this Composer

Solo

TLC for Solo Drumset
Twelve Preludes for Marimba
V for Solo Vibraphone

Chamber Ensemble

Four for Flexatones
Sonata for Marimba and Vibraphone
Triangle Trio
vi for Piano and two Percussionists
VV for two Vibraphone and four Percussionists