The Techniques of Percussion Playing

• Systematic description of sound generation, mallet types and their potential applications
• Many charts, illustrations and annotated examples from the repertoire
• Instructive videos with technical explanations, practical tips and sound samples can be downloaded from the Bärenreiter website.

The acclaimed percussionist Christian Dierstein has joined forces with a research group at the Basel Academy of Music to examine the techniques of percussion playing from an innovative perspective. The main focus falls less on the instruments than on their sound producers: beaters, mallets, sticks, bows, specific manual techniques up to and including electronic pulse generators. This book describes all of them in detail and illustrates their range of application in carefully selected and annotated examples from the repertoire.

Many essays by guest authors such as Nicolaus A. Huber, Steven Schick, Fritz Hauser and Bernhard Wulff relate the performance descriptions to ongoing aesthetic debates. They reveal that sound production and interaction with sound-generating objects have moved centre stage in contemporary composition and its expanded concepts of material and performance. The result is a comprehensive reference book for composers and performers that will also serve as a source of inspiration for future innovative approaches in percussion playing.