Five by Five by Andy Pape

The title “Five by Five” alludes to the architectural blueprint for the piece in its entirety. Each beat of the piece has, instead of the traditional four 16th notes, five 16th notes. Each measure has in turn five beats, five measures comprise a period (wavy barline). Five of these periods give way to a section (double barline), five sections comprise a session, which is to say the whole piece. In this way, there are in all five to the fifth power (3,125) 16th notes.

The instrument set-up is a suggestion, and can be altered to fit the performance situation and the performers involved.

The drums, and effects of percussion II should be of a lower sonority than percussion I. That is to say, that perc.II’s floor tom should sound lower than perc.I’s floor tom. Perc.II’s cow bell, lower than perc.I’s cowbell etc. The crotales should also be of different pitches, although reasonably close to each other in pitch. The crotales can also be replaced with other bell-like sonorities, i.e. prayer bells etc.

The piece starts with both percussionists playing with plastic brushes. Between measures 46 and 52 both percussionists are asked to change from plastic brushes to large sticks or hard mallets. This is done by picking up one stick during the rest in measure 46, and thus having a stick and a brush in the one hand from m. 46 to 51. During m. 51-52 the brushes are put down, and the second stick taken up.