Did Italian Lovers Shout Allegro?

This piece has had a few airings – the sound file is taken from the first performance with Andrew Greenwald, Bill Carbonne, and Tyshaun Sorey all on percussion. The video link is to another version played by John Myers, Matt Hurwit, and Tyshaun Sorey. In both versions the instruments were prepared just before the percussionist took to the stage: they remove, rearrange, and redistribute these preparations during the piece; I’ve edited this initial preparation of the instruments out of the sound file and in the video the lighting is not great so you can see it; I’m trying to track down the video of the first performance, which shows clearly this process of preparation. In any event the piece is an attempt to make 4/4 as difficult as possible to play. Have a look at the score/instructions and see what a pain it is to play…… I hope these imposed difficulties contribute to a strange and interesting rhythmic feel

Instructions for Italian

Sound File