I really want to thank you for doing this with me. As you will see from my questioning I tried to take a perspective of the “Bob the Performer” and “Bob the Composer” and combine the two. If you find that you answer one question in a previous answer and want to omit a question… Read more »
Bob Becker: Blog
Bob’s interview with Leigh Howard Stevens
The following interview was conducted at the request of the Percussive Arts Society, and appeared in the August, 1996 issue of Percussive Notes. LHS: Let’s get this important question out of the way in the very beginning. Everybody who knows anything about xylophone knows you are not only the greatest living xylophonist, but also the… Read more »
Some Thoughts and Information Concerning Cymbals
Percussionists who perform in symphony orchestras form a relationship with their instruments that is esoteric, often arcane, and little understood by other musicians and the general public. Although most people have seen and heard cymbals, gongs and bells, for example, very few have had the experience of listening to one of them intimately and intently… Read more »
Peak Performance
The following short article was written in response to a request from the Sabian cymbal company. The questions were: “How do you deliver a peak performance? How do you prepare for a concert?” An edited version of the article, along with answers to the same questions by Vic Firth, Evelyn Glennie, Ney Rosauro, John Wooton… Read more »
About Playing The Xylophone (lecture delivered at PASIC 1995)
I have to say, it’s becoming more and more difficult for me to think of things to say about playing the xylophone these days. Even though it’s an instrument that I still play fairly regularly on NEXUS concerts, it’s not something that I spend much time with outside of that context. It’s interesting to me… Read more »
The Paradoxes of Percussion
In 1989 I was approached with the prospect of editing an issue of the Bristish publication Contemporary Music Review about contemporary percussion. At the time, I thought it would be very interesting to give percussion performers a forum in which to present some of their feelings about the professional situations into which they are drawn… Read more »
