About the Performance
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Notes From Halim
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We will organize our thoughts, and then our physical positions, around the following elements and styles:
Elements
- Metal, Wood, Skin, Bone, Ceramic - Pottery, Air, Water: many textures
Styles
- Ethnic/Cultural (Latin, Asian Indian, Brazilian, Irish, W. African, etc.)
- Marching/Martial
- Jazz
- Orchestral (ex. tympani)
General Compositional Values
- Simplicity, silence, emptiness, space between sounds.
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I think that creating music must be a bit like applying make-up to a pretty face: it should accent and complement, not cover up. Let sounds complement the ambient noise or silence. Give each sound a chance to stand on its own. Give the listener a chance to enjoy a lingering taste of a single sound. Acknowledge rest, emptiness, wholeness.
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- Dynamism: Soft, Loud, Fast, Slow, Order, Chaos
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Watch for cues that indicate if you should play softly or loudly, or stop playing entirely, or speed up or slow down, or play exactly the same thing as everyone else, or allow all voices to sound at once.
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For example, there may be times when only shakers and bells are playing - no matter what ethnic style or subgroup you are from. There may be other times when, for example, only the Latin drums are playing.
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Healing, Fresh Water, Balance, Judgment, Nourishment.
Before Ma'at, there was only disorder.
Without Oshun, there is no beauty.
Isis is the Great Mother.
It is no mistake that these are female aspects.
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Getting Ready
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- All drummers must understand cues before the performance. Drawings and photos of the cues will be available soon on this website.
- There will be at least one mass rehearsal on Sunday, July 9, 6pm, at Cleveland's Public Square. Details are available on the Rehearsal page.
- Please plan on attending this rehearsal so you can learn some of the score.
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How It Starts
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- Performers will check in (rain or shine) at Public Square between 3:30 and 4:00 p.m.
- Volunteers will be available to help you unload instruments from your car. Click for check-in and parking details.
- We will take our places, do a sound check, and be ready before 5 p.m.
- Drummers will be grouped off in the quadrant of Public Square closest to the Terminal Tower. (We may spill out onto the adjoining quadrants, if necessary.)
- A diagonal path will wind through the orchestra from two "gates", allowing audience members and dancers to flow through at will and fully experience the performance.
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During The Show
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- Halim El-Dabh and his assistants, visible from all points, will conduct the orchestra using simple vocalizations, hand gestures and signs. (Halim will be on an elevated cherry-picker, in the center of the orchestra.)
- It will be important to pay attention and heed the simple instructions of the conductor and his assistants.
- The symphony will begin promptly at 5 p.m., when the Old Stone Church's bells strike the hour.
- From the sounds of those first bells, slowly, layer upon layer of drums will emerge. They will speak their collective languages, sounding ancient and far-away rhythms, modern adaptations and experiments, individual voices and mass chorus.
- At exactly 5:30 the orchestra will unfold into a unified and universal heartbeat rhythm: BOOM-boom. BOOM-boom. BOOM-boom.
- People around the globe, linked by the Internet and satellite broadcast, will participate in this synchronized heartbeat and our rhythm as an expression of solidarity.
- As we crescendo towards the finale, each voice will once again take part in a symphony of elegance and joy.
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How It Ends
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- As we finish the performance, a single snare drummer will start a new beat - a simple march - and emerge from the orchestra.
- Other marchers will join and start a procession around the perimeter of the orchestra, continuing back to the entrance of the Terminal Tower.
- They will be joined by a large marching band (complete with tubas and horns, etc.) that will have been waiting inside the lobby of the Tower.
- The marching band will continue the procession all the way to the Ingenuity Main Stage on E.4th & Prospect, where they will join jazz master Ernie Krivda and his orchestra for another special piece written for the occasion.
- Those who wish to join the procession may certainly do so. Drums left at the performance area will be secured (thanks to Tenable Security) until 6:30 p.m., at which point you should reclaim your drums and put
them away in your car.
- Volunteers will be available to help you transport your drums back to your car.
- Feel free to participate in any Ingenuity programming the rest of the weekend, as all performers receive a complimentary all-access pass as token of our appreciation.
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