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Konstantyn Napolov Performs Tansy Davies’s Stone Codes and Dark Ground in the Netherlands

Oct. 18, 2023

On October 2, Konstantyn Napolov and Orkest de Ereprijs perform Tansy Davies’s 2022 tour-de-force Stone Codes for percussion and ensemble of 14 players as Musis Arnhem in the Netherlands.

Davies's 18-minute composition for Napolov’s Percussion Marathon piles layer upon layer, playing with different constellations and rhythmic patterns, with energetic leaping and diving figures in the woodwinds over syncopated figures in piano and percussion. The soloist’s battery of instruments includes microtonally-tuned glockenspiel bars, four boobams, and Thai and opera gongs. The pervasive groove found in Davies’s music, recalling the influences of funk and electronica, comes in part from bass and electric guitars and two drum kits.

Stone Codes was commissioned by the Dutch Golden Collection Foundation, Orkest De Ereprijs, and Warsaw Autumn festival, and premiered at the 2022 November Music Festival. It was written for Napolov as a part of the Dutch Golden Collection. 


Trailer – Napolov´s Percussion Marathon

Napolov will also give several performances of Davies’ Dark Ground for solo percussion this season. The 8-minute piece opens Hold Your Ground – Summer Snow at the Boilerhouse Foundation in The Hague – a spectacle that unfolds over three successive evenings. In Dark Ground everything grows up from a root - the Pedal Bass Drum - a dead sound, cycling in a simple yet deceptive 7/8. Composed for Joby Burgess in 2005, it draws on influences as diverse as Xenakis and Prince. 


Dark Ground/Tansy Davies/Konstantyn Napolov, percussion

The three-phase performance, directed by Saskia Mees and Laura Vink, brings together writer Taco Sorgdrager, actor Louis van Rijt, and the dancers of the Boilerhouse Foundation, and explores inhuman and human desires for balance. It opens on November 17 with performances across from November through February – details and tickets may be found here.

Additionally, on October 25 the Toronto Symphony Orchestra and Gustavo Gimeno perform the North American premiere of Davies’s Plumes (2019). The five-minute work, which premiered at the Glasshouse International Centre for Music (formerly the Sage) in Gateshead, was inspired by the swirling, complex currents and flows of the river Tyne; Davies calls the piece “a dance of two elements; a duet between air and water”.

To learn more about Tansy Davies, visit fabermusic.com.

Tansy Davies
Stone Codes (2022)
for solo percussion and ensemble of 14 players
2fl(pic).bcl(cl).ssax.bsax-hn.tpt.2tbn.tba-2perc(1 is soloist)-pno-egtr.bgtr
2fl(=picc).bcl(=cl).ssax.bsax – hn.tpt.2tbn.tba – per(2; player 1 is soloist)* – pno – egtr.bgtr
*Percussion player 1: mar/vib/4 boobams/6 microtonal glsp bars/2 Thai gongs/2 opera gongs/3-6 non-pitched trash objects/drum kit/3 congas/tgl/thunder sheet Percussion 2: vib/shaker/2 susp.cym/roto-tom/tom-tom/BD/Thai gong/Drum kit
18'

Dark Ground (2005)
for solo percussion
8'

Plumes (2019)
for chamber orchestra
2(2.pic).2.2(2.bcl).1.cbn-2.2.0.0-str
5'

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