John Williams and Kevin Puts: A Cosmic Journey

SLSO Associate Principal Timpanist and Section Percussionist Kevin Ritenauer joins Assistant Conductor Sam Hollister to explore a program inspired by the wonder of space and the power of cinematic sound. Ritenauer reflects on how composers like John Williams and Kevin Puts create a sense of the unknown through music, what gives a piece its cinematic feel, and how genre-blending artists like Time for Three bring a unique energy to the stage. He also shares a percussionist’s perspective on some of the most colorful moments in this out-of-this-world program.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:04

Welcome to today's episode of Noted, a podcast that offers a quick look at the personal stories and perspectives behind each SLSO classical program. I'm Sam Hollister, assistant conductor of the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra. Led by music director Stefan Deneve, this week's program takes the audience on a cosmic journey. It opens with John Adams' exhilarating short ride in a fast machine, followed by Kevin Putz's Contact, performed by the genre-defying trio Time for Three in their SLSO debut. The concert concludes with music by John Williams, including selections from Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Adventures on Earth from E.T. The Extraterrestrial, and The Star Wars Suite. Joining me to talk about this program is SLSO Associate Principal Tempanist and Section Percussionist Kevin Rittenhauer. Kevin, thank you so much for being here. Of course, happy to be here. So many of the pieces on this program look to outer space, including John Williams' film scores Star Wars and ET, as well as Kevin Putz's contact. How do these composers depict the sound of space with music? Or how do you think composers can imagine the sounds of space?

SPEAKER_01 1:20

You know, I'm I'm gonna stick mostly to my instrument family, but the first time I ever played anything from the Star Wars suites or movies or whatever, I was surprised at just how much Glockenspiel and triangle there is. So you look to outer space, you see the stars, the sparkle of the stars, the sparkle of the Glockenspiel or the triangle. For example, in the Imperial March, where Darth Vader's theme is introduced, there is a very prominent Glockenspiel part. With, you know, lower instruments, but it's got that sparkle up there too. And yeah, I think a lot of the time too, orchestrationally composers will kind of play with this almost agoraphobic feeling. Slow-moving passages, long tones, twinkles all throughout.

SPEAKER_00 2:04

Yeah. You say agoraphobic, and that makes me think of some kind of creepiness to the soundscape as well on occasion. Is there a way that percussion can plug into that sense of eeriness?

SPEAKER_01 2:16

Yeah, I mean, I think we have a whole range of instruments, so you know, off the top of my head, a low hum of a bass drum is something that might create this eerie feeling, you know, like a quick bow of a cymbal might create some sort of discomfort.

SPEAKER_00 2:31

So tell us about that because some of our listeners may not know about bowed symbols. So you take symbols that normally you might crash together and tell us how you create sound if you're bowing it.

SPEAKER_01 2:42

More often than not, we'll use a bass bow, not, you know, for you you bass enthusiasts out there, nothing expensive, maybe something you buy on Amazon, um, and you rosin it a ton, and then you put the symbol on a stand, and then you draw the bow across the edge of the symbol. And what that does is it brings out the hum of the symbol, but also a lot of the overtones that are living inside the symbol. Sometimes you'll get like a nice screech, sometimes you'll get like a low metal y hum, but it's something that has become fairly standard in the last 50 years.

SPEAKER_00 3:18

John Adams' short ride in a fast machine and puts this contact aren't film scores exactly, but they have a very cinematic feeling. What do you think makes a piece of music feel cinematic? You're thinking of cinematic music?

SPEAKER_01 3:31

I think of battle scenes mostly and flight scenes. Flight scenes are fun ones because there's a lot of fast-moving notes, probably a snare drum, you know, being the backbone of the rhythm. But on top of that, when I think of film scores, I think of sweeping string melodies that are soaring over a faster beat, you know. The ET that we're playing on the next concert. The flying theme is something that I think of as is pretty quintessential film music, and it has all of those elements involved. Um, and obviously, you know, the brass section gets to shine a lot in these in these environments. Do you have an all-time favorite film score? Okay. So can I have two answers to this? Let's do it. Okay. One, the first answer to make me seem a little more artsy than I actually am. When I was in high school, I did the write-up for the 2012 Oscars, right? So I I wrote the whole article and I did my picks. And so for best score, I chose the artist. Ah, okay. The artist did end up winning best score. But I think that that was a very niche experience, right? It was a silent film, completely silent. So the music was in a lot of ways center stage. And as a movie goer in 2012, that was a very fun thing to experience. And I was really drawn to that score, and I was glad I was right. But uh one of the scores that I've really loved that we have played here was actually How to Train Your Dragon. That is the best film score of all time. Correct answer. Thank you for for saying that.

SPEAKER_00 5:01

It was so fun. I had such a great time with that, and it's pretty hard to beat. I'm curious what the experience was like to play that, because I am not joking when I say that is my favorite film score.

SPEAKER_01 5:11

Well, for percussionists in movies, the real task, more often than not, is just the puzzle piece that your part is, right? So you might be running across the whole stage playing 25 different instruments, who knows? But the thing that I really loved about how to train your dragon was it had this Celtic element to it, right? So lots of drums, lots of driving rhythms. And there was definitely a lot of shuffling around and running across the stage to make sure I get to the marimba so I can play my five notes and then running across back to the snare drum and playing those driving rhythms. It's a good drum book.

SPEAKER_00 5:45

Yeah. Yeah. Tiefer Three is performing on this program, and they're known for blending contemporary bluegrass improvisation with classical music. When artists bring different styles to the orchestra, how does it affect the energy on stage as you're performing?

SPEAKER_01 6:03

When you're playing bluegrass music nine times out of ten, it's what? Three to eight people on stage. And so we're now taking those elements and infusing an extra 80 people. And I think that sort of communication can become difficult, but through a week of rehearsals, you know, I think we really find the center of that time feel that bluegrass has that maybe straight ahead orchestral music doesn't necessarily have. And I think it's in studying this piece, they do such a great job of kind of implementing these two kind of conflicting ideas and really melding them into one great product.

SPEAKER_00 6:42

We've talked a little bit about how percussion can create different colors and effects in the world of film music, but it seems to me that one thing film music has contributed to the world of orchestral music is a really expansive use of that palette of percussive color. Are there any particular moments in the Williams pieces, especially, that are satisfying to play as a percussionist?

SPEAKER_01 7:08

I would go to Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Towards the end of the piece, there's just a Glock Glockenspiel, sorry. There's a Glockenspiel part that just kind of skates across the instrument in a way that is incredibly satisfying to play and to listen to. There's the snare drum part for the um main title of Star Wars. I mean, it just doesn't really get much better than that. It's four-stroke roughs and you know, driving rhythms and and loud rolls, and it's just, you know, it's like a playground for a drummer.

SPEAKER_00 7:42

Can you tell a non-drummer such as myself what a four-stroke what did you say? What was the particular thing? Four-stroke rough. What is a four-stroke rough?

SPEAKER_01 7:49

So a four-stroke rough is three grace notes and a main note. Aha, okay. And for whatever reason, playing a nice open four-stroke rough is just very fun. Yes. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 8:00

So you find that most of those moments in the Star Wars main title have that satisfying writing for Snare?

SPEAKER_01 8:06

Oh, absolutely. I mean, all of the parts are good. It's really uh nobody's having a bad time. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 8:12

Well, Kevin, it's been great speaking with you today. Thank you for sharing your perspective and helping us explore the program. Absolutely. Really looking forward to it. And to our listeners, thank you as always for joining us for this episode of Noted. We'll be back with another episode very soon, so stay tuned. And I'll see you at Powell Hall.