A Simple Machine by Lucas Garner

“A Simple Machine” was composed in 2017 during Lucas’s studies with professors Casey Cangelosi and Eric Guinivan. As a culmination of his personal studies during that period of Lucas’s musical development, Lucas decided to tackle the toughest compositional challenge he could think of by writing a piece for solo unaccompanied snare drum. The piece added an additional instrument sound (referred to as a “ding”) before its 2018 premiere, and was revised during its republishing with C. Alan Publications in 2024.

Snare drum repertoire is a necessary evil in the world of percussion. As percussionists, a firm foundation in snare drum technique allows us far more tools to apply to other instruments we learn to play. Unfortunately, outside of a few very specific exceptions, the snare drum expert is lacking for repertoire with musical depth and conceptual creativity. This becomes especially true when you exclude pieces with accompaniment such as Bob Becker’s “Mudra.”

As a concept to motivate this composition, Lucas decided to explore the process of creating and inventing at its core. By exploring the fundamental machines that we all use in daily life, Lucas realized that musical ideas in their purest forms often function as these devices in the context of musical compositions.