I did not originally set out to write a piece about recycling! When I was asked to write a percussion quartet related to the theme of “memory”, for Architek to perform at the Rainy Days festival in Luxembourg in Autumn 2023, I thought at first that I might explore some endangered sounds—sounds that still occur now, but that are in danger of becoming nothing but a memory in the future. I have always wanted to write a piece based on sounds from the Arctic Ocean—walruses, bearded seals, bowhead whales, ice—and this seemed like the perfect opportunity to do so. I started making mock-ups of the percussion instruments I wanted to use at home: I struck salad bowls for the gonging sound of walruses, I bowed water bowls for the ethereal sound of bearded seals, I made chittering noises with slinkies attached to cups-asresonators for cracking ice. I discovered that the size, shape, and material of the resonator made a big difference to the sounds I could make with the slinky, and started reaching into the recycling bag for its endlessly varied supply of metal, plastic and paper objects. I became quite fascinated by these recycled materials and their sound making potential, and the various ways these sounds can be activated, including with slinkies, mallets, hands and fingers, bows, whisks, and dried beans. Somewhere along the way, my idea drifted from using traditional percussion instruments to engage with Arctic sounds to using instruments made with recycled materials to engage with Arctic sounds, to simply making sounds with the recycled materials themselves.
The process of writing (re)cycling I: metals was very exploratory: I wanted to uncover the stories these recycled and discarded materials have to tell, rather than imposing pre-conceived sounds and structures on them. At first I thought this piece might include sounds made by all the types of items that can be found in the recycling—metal, plastic, paper glass—but I soon realized that even if I stuck to metal items alone, they made many more kinds of sounds than I could use. (Indeed, the slinky sounds which initiated this investigation did not make it into this piece, though I may use them elsewhere.) Although the piece is notated, has a particular order in which sounds and gestures enter, and suggests proportions for each section, the performers have quite a bit of freedom in how they realize it, because different performance venues, audiences, performers, and the specific items used may demand different interpretations.
“Memory” remains a central aspect of the piece, though in altered form. Whereas I had initially been thinking of possible future memories of something that may one day disappear, now I am thinking of memory as the continued existence of objects whose initial use may be long past. There are, of course, environmental implications to creating something from trash, and I don’t want my piece to come across as either heavyhanded or glib. The beauty and playfulness of sounds created from recycling is not meant to underplay the danger that waste poses, nor is it intended to suggest that a bit of crafty upcycling is in any way a solution to the enormous problem of waste. I’ve certainly become more aware of packaging materials and discarded items throughout the course of writing this piece, and one can hope that greater awareness and attention may one day lead to greater care in how we use them. I still like my initial Arctic sound ideas too, but those will have to wait for another piece!
Commissioned by Philharmonie Luxembourg for Architek Percussion, for premiere at Rainy Days Festival 2023.
