Nanafushi originally by Tetsuro Naito was written for the renowned Japanese Taiko group KODO, has now been arranged by Jeffery Crowell for percussion trio. After hearing the original piece, Crowell was fascinated by the spirit and energy of this type of ensemble and wanted to put it in a form that was much more accessible to most percussionists.
This trio features two performers on identical multi-setups, utilizing their hands and fit to blaze through this energetic piece, while the third performer plays traditional Asian "jing" cymbals. This is an incredibly interesting piece that will give the performers and audience alike an exposure to a different culture.
Instrumentation:
- Player 1: Concert Bass Drum (with pedal), Bongos, Conga, Floor Tom, Kick Drum (with pedal)
- Player 2: Jing Cymbals
- Player 3: Concert Bass Drum (with pedal), Bongos, Conga, Floor Tom, Kick Drum (with pedal)
Duration: 5:30
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Notes from the Composer: "Nanafushi was originally written by Tetsuro Naito for the Japanese Taiko group KODO. Fascinated by the piece, I wanted to see if its spirit and energy could be distilled down from a large, authentic ensemble of taiko drummers to a small chamber ensemble of three players. Having never witnessed a performance of the piece, I worked to transcribe the music from the audio recording. I proceeded to arrange all the different sounds for two multi-percussionists playing only common, western drums, plus one percussionists playing an Asian cymbal/block part. It requires the two drum players to recreate all of the Taiko parts utilizing not only their hands but both of their feet as well. Obviously, some doubled parts are lost in this arrangement, but I did my best to let no musical or rhythmic part be sacrificed - everything that's played on the recording is represented as realistically as possible," - Jeffrey Crowell
