DESCRIPTION:
Prism Of The Plural, by Joshua Mills
Performed by line upon line percussion
Cullen Faulk, Adam Bedell, and Matthew Teodori

Mallet: #vfM134
http://www.vicfirth.com/product/buynow/product.php?button=M134

ABOUT THE PIECE:
Percussion music embodies at once the most raw and primitive aspects of music as well as the most contemporary. An entirely new sound-world is revealed when pitch as it is usually conceived is removed from the musical equation. The heart of music – the shape of sound as it moves through time – is bared in percussion music as in few others.

As music passes through time, it is refracted much as a beam of light is refracted as it passes through the glass of a prism. The same passage, heard at different times and in different times, may slowly unfold, reveal new aspects, make manifest parts once hidden and secret, and that which has already past and been fixed can itself be transformed by the shining of new light.

In Prism of the Plural, the limited material offered by instruments is refracted through repetition, transformation, and increasingly fast tempi so as to reveal hidden aspects and open to a single listener various perspectives of a single piece, and within a single piece.

Prism of the Plural is scored for four percussionists. Each has five drums and either five wood blocks (the middle players) or five metal bars (the outer players). An assortment of brake drums, chimes, crotales, cymbals, and tam-tams complete the battery.

Prism of the Plural was commissioned by Matthew Teodori and the Austin-based line upon line percussion group and was premiered by line upon line on 24 February 2009 at the University of Texas at Austin. The recording is of the 17 April 2009 performance by line upon line at the Universiy of Texas at Austin.

ABOUT THE COMPOSER:
Known for his serious, demanding, and expressively penetrating music, composer Joshua William Mills has attracted the attention and respect of the musicians with whom he has worked. With a tendency towards the poetic, mystical, and intimate, he relishes closely working with small groups of dedicated performers or solo musicians. In addition to numerous other individuals, his works have been performed by the Interlochen Composers' Institute Chamber Players, the Houghton Symphonic Winds, the Peabody Opera Department, line upon line percussion group, the University of South Florida Percussion Ensemble, the Peabody Symphony Orchestra, and read by the Buffalo Philharmonic. He is currently a doctoral student at the Florida State University in Tallahassee, Florida, where he works with Ladislav Kubík.

Born in 1984 and raised amidst the peaceful farmlands of southern New Jersey, Joshua early demonstrated an aptitude for music, studying first piano and later clarinet. By the time he graduated from high school in 2003, he had played with the All New Jersey Wind Ensemble, the Garden State Pops Youth Orchestra, the All South Jersey Symphonic Band and Wind Ensemble, and the Rowan Youth Orchestra, in addition to private study in clarinet and piano and his key roles in his high school concert, marching, and jazz bands. Despite these things, his inclination towards composing his own music went largely unexplored until 2002 with the completion of his Sonata for clarinet and piano. Joshua performed the second movement of this work—a dynamic and rousing fugue—in May 2003 in Glassboro, New Jersey, on a concert with the Rowan Youth Orchestra, thus marking his official debut as a composer.

FULL BIO HERE: http://www.joshuawilliammills.com/bio.html

ABOUT THE PERFORMERS:
Formed in 2009, line upon line percussion is committed to seeking new ways for percussion instruments to advance contemporary music. To date, the ensemble has commissioned and premiered 8 new works for percussion with 13 additional works currently in the collaborative process. In 2011, the Austin-based trio released a disc of commissioned, homegrown music and premiered their award winning project, seeing times are not hidden, a site-specific work for custom chimes. April 2013 brought the North American premiere of Hugues Dufourt’s massive, evening-length masterpiece, Erewhon.

After nominations in 2011 and 2012, the trio was named Best Ensemble by the Austin Critics' Table in 2013. The Austinist called line upon line “the premier new music percussion ensemble in Texas and the South.”

line upon line maintains educational and outreach roles with the Austin Chamber Music Center and has performed and taught at numerous academic institutions around the United States. November 2012 marked their first appearance at the Percussive Arts Society International Convention. The group has previously performed at the Fusebox Festival, SXSW, Fast Forward Austin, the Victoria Bach Festival and the International Festival-Institute at Round Top.

line upon line VIC FIRTH ARTIST PAGE: http://vicfirth.com/artists/line_upon_line.php