Commissioned by Michael Compitello for the “Unsnared Drum” Project
Negative Magic is a piece that discovers richness and complexity by relinquishing control. Rather than acting upon my initial impulse to augment and add to the snare drum, I set about exploring its many components. This resulted in a reconceptualizing of the entire project— I was not to compose “just” for snare drum, but was curating a combined state of all the separate parts: the drum head, rim, and snares. My piece maximizes the resonance and beating of the drum by tuning it irregularly: both the drumhead and snares are almost completely loosened. As snare drums are wonderfully diverse, this set-up creates a sound world unique to every instrument. Yet the commonality I imagine is the atmosphere of a powerful ritual taking place between performer and instrument— perhaps not unlike a wizard stirring a magic cauldron, conjuring various potions and spells in a mysterious language.
