Composers

Digital perusal score available from ScoresOnDemand

First performance:
March 17 2013
Symphony Orchestra of the National Centre for the Performing Arts
Beijing, China

Composer note:
Drums reflect many of the unique social and historical patterns that evolve throughout a culture.

The rich array of artistic expressions from the Chinese drum culture (sacrificial, worshiping, farming, and warfare ceremonies; pomp, circumstance, and jubilation) gives full expression to the vitality of the Chinese nation. The verve and strength of the Chinese Miao people inspired Harvest Drum for orchestra.

Chinese drumming is a group activity, often involving six or more percussionists, frequently dressed in ornate clothing with attention-grabbing colors. Harvest Drum features five percussionists, whose unison playing symbolizes the bonds between individuals in the Miao communities with a thread that goes back through many harvest cycles to the beginning of mankind’s own impulse to create and repeat rhythms and patterns be it with the land or with sound.

— Augusta Read Thomas