Northern Music Includes Northland Culture

By Kaitlyn Barnard
Staff Writer
Posted 5/6/09

Northern Music Includes Northland Culture UW-Superior’s percussion ensemble incorporated many aspects of northland culture as they presented “Music of the North” on Wednesday, April 29 in the Thorpe Langley Auditorium, a culminating performance of the semester, led by Director Dr. Brett Jones.

The percussion ensemble, comprised of ten students, took the stage to present several percussion pieces that highlighted music with northern themes or by northern composers. One of those composers was UW-Superior’s Dr. Brett Jones, who wrote “Canoe Music,” a piece that was literally “written to be played on a canoe.”  This pieced included the use of drum sticks, paddles, and of course, a canoe in a Stomp style-inspired creation.

Dr. Jones was inspired to write “Canoe Music” by world-famous percussionist Michael Udow, who traveled to the campus two weeks earlier to work with the ensemble. Michael Udow is a professor in the department of Wind and Percussion at the University of Michigan School of Music, Theatre, and Dance and has been teaching there since 1982. He has also been a principal percussionist with the Santa Fe Opera since 1968. Udow can be heard on various record labels including New World and Columbia.

Included in the performance were other works by Udow, including an adaptation of “…As the Wind Colors....” This first work of the performance was a piece that was written to be performed by percussionists in a canoe on a lake.  

Among the drum sticks, paddles, and canoe, the ensemble used a variety of other instruments including a small-gong like instruments covered in water, a tambourine, a Middle Eastern hand drum, mallet percussions instrument, and creative uses of traditional percussion. They also chanted and used their bare hands.

The theme of northern music carried through to the performances as well. In a piece titled “Aurora Borealis,” the ensemble utilized instruments to create sounds similar to dripping water, rustling wind, and other elements of the northland environment.

Percussion ensemble performing the world premiere of “Canoe Music,” an original work by Dr. Brett Jones.     Photo: Kaitlyn Barnard