A Note on Trash Can Music

This is a public service announcement, in case any of you are tempted to incorporate trash cans into a composition of your own. It's not as easy as it sounds.

Last night we heard the West Coast premiere of Knight, Death, and the Devil by Frederic Rzewski--it's a chamber music work, performed here by Oberlin alumni eighth blackbird.

And it features the set of trash cans, pictured. Not only are they drummed on, but at one point, the percussionist throws plates into one of them, smashing them. After a bit, he puts a lid on it, picks up the can, and shakes it. Eventually he jumps on top of the can and smashes it.

We're not reviewing the work as a whole--we've just heard it the once. Rzewski wrote the piece to accompany a Dürer etching: "All that remains is the theme of war, and the notion of frozen motion: proceeding in stages from one situation to another, sometimes smoothly, sometimes unpredictably."

Rzewski doesn't say whether he intended to provoke giggling fits, but the trash can serenade did just that. It's not that it's such a terrible idea; in practice it's jarring and ugly and chaotic, like war. The percussionist threw himself into his trashcan solo with such fervor that clouds of dust from the cracked plates billowed up...and then the strings began again. For the audience--we're not blaming anyone--the juxtaposition in a concert hall seemed too much to ask. Giggles became snorts of laughter. War was not top of mind.

Also, what do they do with the smushed trash can?