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Trommel mit Mann / Drum with man / 2001
Music Fritz Hauser
Directed by Barbara Frey
Lighting by Brigitte Dubach
With his solo programme for one drum Fritz Hauser explores ways which
lead far back to the origins of his preoccupation with sound and rhythm.
The drummer and composer has repeatedly collaborated with director and
musician Barbara Frey who is mainly working for the theatre, and was always
interested that Hauser confronted himself with the unusual, that he dealt
with his instruments from different angles of view and of hearing.
With “Trommel mit Mann” no virtuosity and circus capers are
to be expected. The drummer’s instrumental abilities, here, are being
boiled down to the most elementary attitudes, the dialogue man/instrument
turns into the original approach.
Foto Christian Lichtenberg •
Press comments on “Trommel mit Mann”
“... This is by far more than a stringing together
of skillful and effective beats. Hauser’s hour-long performance which,
directed by Barbara Frey, gets a theatrical touch, has something to do
with the becoming aware of one’s own creativity and tries to get
to the bottom of how it is achieved. No playing with what goes without
saying but one which asks about its prerequisites ....”
“... This is Hauser’s most uncompromising, and in its musical
development most consequent
work ....”
(Christian Fink, “Basler Zeitung”, 11 March 2002)
DRUMMER OF A DIFFERENT BEAT
It’s 8 PM November 9, 2004. A lone drum sits centre stage in the
Music Gallery at St. George the Martyr where the altar would usually be
commanded by an Anglican Minister. But tonight’s sermon is entirely
percussive. A snare and its master, Fritz Hauser, will preach from the
good book of drumming for the first one of two heavenly hours.
This, the North American premiere of Trommel mit Mann (Drum with Man),
is a percussive exploration of sound and rhythm as only Fritz Hauser can
journey. Swiss-born Hauser is no stranger to the world stage of drumming
virtuosos. His concerts in solo and ensemble along with his numerous recordings
have transcended the drums’ native timekeeping role to define them
as a uniquely musical solo instrument.
I have to confess, though, as a player and lover of all things drumming;
even I had my doubts about the entertainment value of a 1 hour snare solo.
There’s no question that the skill involved to endure such a lengthy
public workout would have to be nothing short of masterful. Of course,
I myself like any other diligent drummer have practiced rudimental drills
on a snare for several hours at a time. But I wouldn’t dream of making
an audience endure it with me. After all, how long can one listen to the
same tone of a single drum no matter how brilliantly played?
So as the Music Gallery’s artistic director, Jim Montgomery introduced
our featured performer, I quietly thought to myself that if I could just
get through this first hour of whatever may come, there’s a hopeful
reprieve in the second half. At least then Hauser would be joined by two
of our own Toronto’s finest percussionists. But as the somber and
confident Hauser took the stage, the roaring cheer of the audience revealed
that these were not mere anonymous attendees to a promising program. These
people were indoctrinated disciples of a phenomenon I clearly had yet
to experience. Perhaps this wouldn’t be so bad after all.
From the moment Hauser takes the throne it’s confirmed for me that
this is no drum solo as I’ve ever experienced. In fact the first
three minutes of the performance present no flailing sticks, no rumbling
mallets, no swishing brushes and no barrage or din of any kind. These
minutes are spent as whole note rests of silence in which Hauser simply
confronts the drum in a seemingly endless stare as we all watch in anticipation.
Then, beginning on beat 4 at a tempo of only 1 beat per minute, Hauser’s
hand slaps the head of the drum with one near deafening crack through
the chapel silence. Then, with 60 seconds to dissipate the sound’s
rippling waves into almost distant memory, another shock of the hand meets
the drum. The space between strokes, however sparse, has been clearly
defined to faithfully predict the following note at 1 minute later. Only
this time it’s a surprising quarter the intensity of the last. The
capacity crowd is consumed by the soft blow into a comforting vacuum of
lured attention. And with six minutes and only three notes into his snare
solo, Hauser has captured me and this audience body and soul without even
lifting a stick.
As the piece begins to unwind, almost no surface of the drum is left
unplayed. The wood shell, the chromed hardware and even the plywood floor
they sit on have become fair game for percussive acrobatics. Not surprising
then, his first choice of striking implement is unorthodox. After his
fingers and palms finish rhythmically exploring all sides of the drum,
Hauser selects a thin steel rod instead of a traditional wooden stick
as his first weapon. Then, one hand at a time and without ever missing
a beat, steel turns to mallet. Mallet turns to brush. Brush turns to some
kind of squeeze toy chime concoction which finally turns to a 10 minute
high flying frenzy of drum stick wizardry with interlaced boot stomps
at the 30 minute mark of the performance. Racing hearts could be felt
throughout the hall almost adding counter-rhythm to the symphony of percussion.
Flowing seamlessly from his fiery torrent to a whispering buzz roll,
Hauser displays his control and command of volume without ever breaking
time or tempo. And then, like a true sensei of the drum, Hauser plays
the spaces between the notes which define them. Each note becoming stronger
and more potent with the increasing spaces which precede and follow them.
He is slowing down.
Sticks are traded for the lull of mallets as we begin our descent to where
we began.
Mallets give way to hands. Hands switch to fingers. Fingers soften to
light finger tips that swish over the snare producing a soothing ocean
drum effect which rolls out to sea into absolute silence. The maestros’
solo is complete.
Applause befitting what is now the most remarkable single drum performance
I have ever witnessed most certainly was heard far beyond this hallowed
hall. And certainly no reprieve was needed as I had earlier surmised.
Part two of this program could only be icing on an already perfect cake.
And it surely did not disappoint as Bob Becker and Russell Hartenberger
joined Hauser for Trommeln mit Männer (Drums with men).
The Music Gallery’s program hailed this performance as "a spontaneous
exploration of percussion sounds and musical sensibilities." I found
that to be a sophisticated way of saying, "jamming with drums and
everything else you can hit to make a sound by people who know what they’re
doing".
For this performance, Fritz Hauser’s centre stage set up is that
of a traditional 1920’s Euro jazz drummer. Each of his Gretsch made
drums are set flat like a series of small tables at almost even height
to one another; a great departure from contemporary multi- elevated set
ups. On stages right and left are the virtual cockpits of Becker and Hartenberger.
Featuring a huge array of hanging gongs, cymbals and bells along with
racks and tables filled with percussion instruments of all shapes, sizes
and ethnic and cultural origins, it was like looking at a Third World
operating theatre. It was magnificent!
As a founding member of the Toronto percussion ensemble NEXUS, Bob Becker
was inducted into the Percussive Arts Society Hall of Fame in 1999. Only
the year before, Becker won a Grammy award for his work with the Steve
Reich and Musicians ensemble in 1998. And even though he is generally
considered to be a virtuoso performer of the xylophone and marimba, this
night he has prepared an arsenal of non-melodic yet wonderfully musical
instruments of resonance and vibration in keeping with Hauser’s percussive
exploration.
Russell Hartenberger, also a member of NEXUS and Steve Reich and Musicians,
is a Professor of Percussion at the University of Toronto. He has worked
with other percussion masters such as Steve Gadd and Peter Erskine as
well as with classical cello genius Yo-Yo Ma and our very own Canadian
Brass.
As our ensemble begins their percussive crusade, one can tell immediately
that this is no trio of mere rudimental demons. This is sonic space exploration
into deep and literally uncharted territory. Every timbre of each drum,
cymbal and whatchamacallit with the wiry do-dads sticking out of it was
being examined for sound in relation to every other instrument on the
stage.
At first the music reminded me of a Clint Eastwood spaghetti western
"good vs. evil" showdown soundtrack. And I mean that in a good
way. It was intense and emotional. Like the part of the movie when you
know someone’s going to get shot but you’re not sure who. You’re
on the edge of your seat. The trio then elevated their feel to even greater
intensity. As Becker drew a cello bow across the squared edges of an otherwise
normal looking cymbal together with Hauser’s unwavering tribal ostinato,
I could have sworn I was listening to a rock concert featuring the feedback
from the guitar of Jimi Hendrix during his Woodstock rendition of the
Star Spangled Banner. But there were bass drum timpani, cymbals played
off of floor toms, mallets striking bongos and a shaker used to sound
off a small tom tom. Clearly there were no rules defined between the performers
before they took the stage. As a result, this concert proved that there
truly are no limits to the creation of percussion music. And as each man
turned to lightly swell their cymbals in turn, the three came together
in sweet waves of harmonic resonance emulating the enchanting drone of
the church’s organ which stands only a few feet away. And finally,
they fade into silence.
I couldn’t have imagined how this concert would have entertained
me as a fan of drums and music. Nor would I have guessed that they would
have inspired me as a player and performer. But now I can count myself
as one of them; one of the indoctrinated disciples of this truly unique
musical art form as well as these heroes of their own genre.
Dee Potter, www.echoworld.com
“... Hauser’s art is also one for the eye. His gesturing is
powerful, always easy but never casual. He knows how to offer appearances
to his sticks which already anticipate the music they’re going to
produce in a minute.”
“Fritz Hauser is a musical builder of worlds. Like a watchmaker,
he puts together component parts which in themselves already are valuables
to form a microcosm, works devotedly on details like a miniaturist. His
approach to the drum which seems to be more a part of himself than just
a percussion instrument sometimes is innocently naïve, sometimes
high-spiritedly playful, rarely loud, often tender, and always full of
love ...”
(Boris Schibler, “Basler Zeitung”, 12 November 2001)
“... Eventually arms and legs get going, and Hauser starts to describe
wonderful wide curves within which he produces, with an incredible control
and sensitivity, an extremely taken back but nonetheless colourful percussive
drama.
... Fritz Hauser succeeds in putting minimal grooves, not least thanks
to a conscious use of volume, ‘into the room’ in such a way
that this ‘innermost’ of sounds becomes architecture: the various
sound parts, the dull resonances, the actual hitting sounds, the overtone
parts varying according to the hitting point on the drumskin seem to come,
in the concrete room, from different directions so that one imagines oneself
in the sound of the drum.
Thus it becomes possible to fully concentrate on the great variety of
minimal rhythmic and spectral processes, and to plunge into swaying timbres,
whirring high frequencies, pulsating basses: especially the fast rhythms
produce a cloudlike slow, floating drift current of sound which carries
the listener away into the Here and Now.”
(Peter Baumgartner, “Basellandschaftliche Zeitung”, 11. März
2002)
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