The Solo Percussionist—Center Stage

The virtuoso percussionist, though not unique to the twentieth century, began to appear on both professional and student recitals during the latter decades of the century. This chapter examines the solo literature written for the principal percussion instruments—timpani, xylophone, marimba, vibraphone—and multiple percussion, the latter term describing an array of dissimilar instruments that is novel to the twentieth century. The chapter portrays the evolution of composer Elliott Carter’s timpani solos and his use of metric modulation. Virtuoso artists, such as Vida Chenoweth, Keiko Abe, and others, composed and commissioned new works for keyboard percussion. Their collective efforts brought keyboard percussion to the forefront of the solo percussion literature. The eminent solo artist Evelyn Glennie commissioned over 200 solo works, many of them categorized as multiple percussion. The percussionist, once banished to the back of the orchestra, often appeared center stage by century’s end.