If It Had Been Any Different...

Listen to the work here!
 
If It Had Been Any Different… is a duo for two-multi percussionists, with the following instrumentation:
 
Percussion 1: Vibraphone, Almglocken (2 octaves), Unpitched Setup: 3 Pitch Log Drum (X Noteheads), 2 Bongos and Low Tom-Tom (Standard Noteheads), Hi-Hat (Triangle Noteheads)
Percussion 2: Chimes, Crotales (2 octaves), Unpitched Setup: 3 Woodblocks (X Noteheads), 2 Frame Drums and Low Tom-Tom (Standard Noteheads), Tambourine (Triangle Noteheads)
 
This work is inspired by a quote about Stephen Hawking, from his 1998 book A Brief History of Time, which loosely describes the philosophical consideration referred to as the “anthropic principle”: “Only in the few universes that our like ours would intelligent beings develop and ask the question: Why is the universe the way we see it? The answer is then simple: if it had been any different, we would not be here!” Hawking speaks to the nature of human perception in influencing (and limiting) the progress made by scientific inquiry, and that inquiry is reflected here in this work for two near-identical multi-percussion setups, inspired by polytonality, 1970’s funk, and drum and bass music. The form follows a progression of meters with odd numbers of sixteenth notes in each measure, and this progression creates a rhythmically complex and driving work based on several short and inquisitive-sounding melodic cells.