Bobby Previte’s
TERMINALS, PART I: DEPARTURES
featuring So Percussion
five concertos for percussion ensemble and soloist
So Percussion – Eric Beach, Josh Quillen, Adam Sliwinski, Jason Treuting with soloists:
Zeena Parkins, harp and electric harp, John Medeski, piano and organ,
Jen Shyu, voice and er hu fiddle, DJ Olive, turntables, Bobby Previte, drums.
TERMINALS is a two-part work composed by Bobby Previte. Part I, “Departures,” is written for the spectacular So Percussion and five legendary improvisers. Their separate concertos dovetail in a thrilling and prolific meeting of the classical and the improvised worlds.
This 90 minute piece brings the standard orchestral percussion instruments (timpani, snare drum, triangle), alongside instruments that in the last century were codified into the percussion literature (brake drums, anvils, almglocken), regional instruments highly associated with folk music (cuica, spoons, talking drum, timbales), electronic percussion (drum machine), and other unclassifiable elements (bullwhip), to fashion a landscape unique to each soloist.
Pitting the precise percussion ensemble against the uncontrollable master improviser, the inherent paradox in the concerto form is dramatically heightened in an attempt to reconcile the ever-fascinating comic book conundrum:
What happens when an irresistible force meets an immoveable object?
TERMINALS Part I: Departures premiered at Merkin Hall, New York on March 28, 2011, a joint production of the Ecstatic Music Festival and New Sounds Live, curated by John Schaefer for WNYC. A subsequent performance took place on May 27 at The Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston, MA.
THE LIVE SHOW
DJ Olive’s pre-recorded introduction mashes up hundreds of bootlegged tapes of drum solos Previte has performed over the past thirty years in concerts all over the wo
rld. Ripped from the context in which they originally existed, Olive takes these wildly different solos a step further, fashioning a new context all his own – a symphony of drum solos.
TERMINAL 1, for Zeena Parkins’ acoustic and electronic harps, 
starts with an exciting introduction, her signature glissandi slicing through the ensemble, proceeds to a lyrical trio section with b
ongos and truck spring, and ends with an 13 bar hocket between Jason Treuting’s and Adam Sliwinski’s thundering bass drums, set on on opposite sides of the stage. Above all this, her electric harp rides roughshod, spurred on by Eric Beach’s timbales.
TERMINAL 2, for Jen Shyu, is written for instruments which have a vocal component, including the Brazilian cuica, a lion’s roar, and a siren whistle. The middle section is complimented
by her beautiful playing of the Er Hu, the Chinese fiddle, against an atmosphere of three gently bending flexatones and bowed vibraphone. A trio for voice
, tom toms and woodblocks follow, culminating in a rapidly accelerating section led by Beach’s talking drums and Josh Quillen’s rice bowl/whistle passage. The piece ends with a surprising declamation.
TERMINAL 3 for DJ Olive’s turntables uses shifting tempi – a staple of the
turntable art – while creating a multi-rhythmic landscape in which the samples run free. Olive scratches in and out of the first movement’s frantic pace, settles into the second movement’s jungle feel with beautiful Shamisen like sounds, and finally comes to a climax with brutal stabs in the last movement, a deliberately slow, crushing crawl inspired by ‘doom metal.’
After intermission, TERMINAL 4, for the composer, pulls out all the stops. 
A tour-de-force movement, Previte modeled the entire work on elements integral to the history of this instrument he knows so intimately, the drum set.
This concerto takes as its inspiration everything a trap drummer experiences. Starting with a highly 
theatrical beginning – all the members of So Percussion downstage playing only 
drumsticks, the piece then cycles through everything from hilarious cascades of falling sticks to a development of the simple drummer 1-2-3-4 “count off” where the players must signal their intentions out loud, a spoons and washboard duet with a drum machine followed by an assembly of an entire second drum set just in time for a drum set ‘battle’ between Previte and Treuting leading to a vicious bullwhip cracking by Quillen, and finally, a swirling cadenza led by a distorted vibraphone. History, humor, showmanship and the modern all come together in this sprawling movement.
TERMINAL 5, the finale, directly follows without a break, beginning with a massive chord punctuating the all out cadenza.
This movement highlights John Medeski’s thrilling keyboard virtuosity, and the writing –amglocken and brake drum counterpoint, steel drum hemiola and Sliwinski’s majestic chime part – is intended to match the power and reach of the Hammon
d Organ. In the quiet middle movement, the piano trades with Quillen’s steel drums until finally, Previte re-enters in the last movement for a stunning duet with Medeski, in turn joined by Treuting. The evening ends with all the soloists back onstage in a final build to a huge polychord before the gentle coda emerges from its wake – four chattering snare drums played downstage amongst the forest of fallen sticks.
Download a PDF of Terminals COMPLETE INFORMATION
VIDEO: Watch excerpts from Terminals on Bobby Previte’s YouTube Channel.
