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Modulo

by Holly Gowland

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about

Modulo was written for a percussion concert at Centrala on February 7th 2023. I decided to write for a drum kit and tape after watching Anna Meredith’s Brisk Widow be performed in 2020. Furthermore, as Anna Meredith's drummer, Sam Wilson, was coaching the percussionists for the Centrala concert, this was the perfect time to write a drum kit piece. Andrius Artunian’s exhibition was going to be present for the concert. Therefore, I wanted to highlight the metallic resonances of the drum kit. I did this by attaching contact microphones to the cymbals. A pedal was being controlled by Aidan Hammond which turned up the volume of these microphones.

Modulo is based on different interpretations of the word “module”. For example, in the construction industry, a module is a stackable and transportable building. Whereas, in coding, the modulo rule will group a specific number and the odd group will be the number produced (e.g. if it is trying to find groups of 4 in the number 11, the number 3 will be shown). Altogether, the one subject matter that interlinks different types of modules is a square. Therefore, as well as the tape part including exclusively modular synthesizer audio, the structure of the drum kit part is based upon a square. For this reason, the piece is split into 4 sections (each 2 minutes each) and are variations of each other.

Each 2-minute section begins with the same rhythm. They all have a similar structure: the rhythmic idea from bar 1; superball and scrape interaction; then to a fast-moving section which features the area of the drumkit on which the section focuses, finishing with a China cymbal crash. Section one and three focus on skinned drum triplets and sections two and four focus on double rudiments on the closed hi-hat. As in a square, the parallels (e.g. section 1 and section 3) act as reflections of each other.

The tape part consists of modular synthesizer sounds which I created from VCV rack. I chose these modules so that they would spectrally merge with the metallic resonances from the cymbals, creating a symbiosis between the acoustic and the electronic. Unlike my other pieces, the electronic line offered a counterpoint against the acoustic part. Seán Clancy’s Inventions and Canons addresses counterpoint between recorded material and instruments, which I studied whilst writing this piece. Although sometimes heavily abstract, the modular synthesizer and drum kit osmose through rhythmic qualities.

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Aidan Hammond (drum kit)

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Holly Gowland Oxford, UK

Composer/ sound artist from Manchester who is studying composition at University of Oxford.
She has won the Peter Redfearn Prize for Composition, John Mayer Prize, RBC Composition Award, Bill Warman Musicians' Union Award and has been commissioned by New Music Cassette (NMC). ... more

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