Manhattan

Listen to the work here!

Manhattan is a short rudimental etude for solo snare drum with a story of friendship and adventure behind it. During the spring semester of my senior year of high school, I traveled with my high school band to New York City, for us to perform at Carnegie Hall. The performance and trip were both fantastic, and it was an incredibly fulfilling musical experience. The four percussionists, myself included, from the high school band that made the trip all had an affinity for rudimental snare drum, marching band and drumline (as was quite “hip” across many local high schools at the time). During an evening in our hotel, we were passing around a shared practice pad and extra marching snare drum sticks, trading short licks back and forth. Though this was not something I had as much familiarity with as my peers, I was nonetheless able to work out something that at the time I called “The New York Lick”. (The camaraderie that came from the titling of these etudes, and the ways they gave us things to reference to each other, were at least as important to us as the act of coming up with music together, if not more – this particular inside joke would continue being referenced throughout the trip’s successes and misfortunes.) As I returned to my hometown to complete my last month of high school, I started slowly adding on bits of this lick until it turned into a one-page etude, my first solo work for snare drum. Looking back on the piece retrospectively, I feel that I have grown in my rhythmic and rudimental language since its composition, but the piece nonetheless serves as an effective exploration of rudimental drumming, appropriate as an audition selection for the high school or undergraduate percussionist. More than anything, it is a tribute to the friends I will always send best wishes to.