Fifty Fifty

Fifty Fifty (2014)
Brief yet virtuosic, Farr packs a range of playing techniques into Fifty Fifty, with the player
initially having to alternate between striking with a finger and mini maraca in the left
hand, all the while sustaining a roll with the right. The simmering suspense of the opening
bars breaks out into a passage of rapid-fire and odd-metered drumstick work peppered
with propulsive accents and nested tuplets. A relatively spacious middle section follows,
its subverted, syncopated shuffle accentuated by the returning mini maraca. The work
then pushes toward its conclusion with a return to the drumstick-driven material, which
now requires the player to negotiate controlled dynamic swells and dips en route to its
fortississimo climax at bar 50.
The composer writes:
Along with 49 other composers around the world, I was asked by Dame Evelyn Glennie
to write a piece for her 50th birthday in 2015. The concept was fascinating – 50 successful
living composers each write a 50-bar piece for a solo percussion instrument.
Evelyn’s decision to make the piece for one instrument only was partially to make the
project creatively challenging and logistically practical, but also as a good opportunity
to diversify the repertoire outside of multi-instrument setups. I approached the project
with immediate glee simply because of the mathematical part of the concept, but then of
course got very excited with thinking up ways to make solo bongos (the instrument she
chose for me) deliver a satisfying piece of music for the audience – with contrast, drama,
subtlety, and excitement.
I used as many playing techniques as I could think of to achieve the contrast element
of the piece – playing with fingers, drumsticks, mini maracas as drumsticks, and
combinations with each hand playing a different technique. The drama, subtlety and
excitement come from the concept and form of the piece – it starts pianissimo and
rhythmically free and builds up to a fortississimo and rhythmically complex climax.
PE135 – v