Percussion

Is there music in the night sky? Of course thinkers from Pythagoras to Johannes Kepler have pondered "the music of the spheres," and composers from Gustav Holst to Mark-Anthony Turnage have on occasion waxed astronomical in their own works. But none have addressed the question quite as literally as the French spectralist Gerard Grisey, whose hourlong percussion work of 1989-90, "Le Noir de l'Etoile," would seem to settle the matter once and for all. Conceived for six percussionists, tape, and live electronics, the piece takes as its inspiration and musical DNA the captured...

Is there music in the night sky? Of course thinkers from Pythagoras to Johannes Kepler have pondered "the music of the spheres," and composers from Gustav Holst to Mark-Anthony Turnage have on occasion waxed astronomical in their own works. But none have addressed the question quite as literally as the French spectralist Gerard Grisey, whose hourlong percussion work of 1989-90, "Le Noir de l'Etoile," would seem to settle the matter once and for all. Conceived for six percussionists, tape, and live electronics, the piece takes as its inspiration and musical DNA the captured...

PERCUSSIVO MUNDO NOVO At: Johnny D's, Thursday 8 p.m. Tickets: $13. 617-766-2004, www.johnnyds.com. With his toggle-tick-controlled electronic percussion and phalanx of 20 drummers, Mikael Mutti fit right into the riotous rhythms of the Lavagem do Bonfim. Though not nearly as well known as Salvador de Bahia's massive carnival celebration, the Lavagem is an equally vivid Afro-Brazilian institution, attracting about a million people for a series of percussion-driven parades through the heart of the old seaside city every January.

It was only a few weeks ago that Zakir Hussain, the world-famous drum virtuoso and master of the Indian tabla, was making the latest of his discoveries of obscure percussion styles in his home country. Driving through Maharashtra state, his party stopped for a roadside break by a temple in the countryside. "There was a young man standing there with two different kinds of drums hanging from his neck," Hussain says. While drumming, the man was chanting shlokas - sacred verses in Sanskrit.

ROUNDSTONE, Ireland - In the shadow of Connemara's Twelve Bens mountains, behind 16th-century Franciscan monastery walls splashed with wild fuchsia, Malachy Kearns spends his days handcrafting one of the country's oldest instruments, the bodhran (pronounced BOW-rawn). Kearns, who claims to be the world's only full-time bodhran maker, stretches the specially treated goatskin across the beech or birch frame, tapping, listening, adjusting, trying to educe the haunting sound of the traditional drum.

It was only a few weeks ago that Zakir Hussain, the world-famous drum virtuoso and master of the Indian tabla, was making the latest of his discoveries of obscure percussion styles in his home country. Driving through Maharashtra state, his party stopped for a roadside break by a temple in the countryside. "There was a young man standing there with two different kinds of drums hanging from his neck," Hussain says. While drumming, the man was chanting shlokas - sacred verses in Sanskrit.

NEW YORK - For the 75th birthday of a New York musical icon, Philip Glass, the city arranged a sellout Carnegie Hall crowd and the US premiere of his Symphony No. 9. The work was performed by the American Composers Orchestra under the direction of frequent advocate Dennis Russell Davies, and on the composer's exact birthday. The celebration was a signal of both Glass's achievement and his fame. His music is oeuvre and brand, evolving through his long career in all directions - operatic, symphonic, monumental, lyrical - yet all immediately recognizable as his. ...

BOBBY PREVITE’S “TERMINALS’’ At: ICA, tonight, 7:30 p.m. Tickets: $20 ($18 for ICA members, students). www.icaboston.org, 617-478-3103 NEW YORK — When So Percussion — a quartet based here that plays only percussion instruments — received an invitation to collaborate from drummer and composer Bobby Previte, they quickly went online to research his work. And what they found pretty much blew their minds. It wasn’t that Previte was obscure.

Just about any program of classical music written after his death, in 1750, could be called "Connected by Bach," so pervasive is the master's influence. But the quartet of pieces that Emmanuel Music assembled for its concert Saturday night at Emmanuel Church would have been welcome under any rubric: Bach's own Orchestral Suite No. 4, John Corigliano's "Fancy on a Bach Air," Stravinsky's "Dumbarton Oaks" Concerto, and then, for the second half of the evening, Stravinsky's complete "Pulcinella" ballet.

NEW YORK — Musician Gil Scott-Heron, who helped lay the groundwork for rap by fusing minimalistic percussion, political expression, and spoken-word poetry on songs such as “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised,’’ died yesterday at age 62. A friend, Doris C. Nolan, who answered the telephone listed for his Manhattan recording company, said he died at St. Luke’s Hospital after becoming sick upon returning from a European trip. “We’re all sort of shattered,’’ she said.

New releases ★★ Being Flynn Filmmaker Paul Weitz relocates Nick Flynn's 2004 memoir from Boston to New York, but that isn't the reason the film feels directionless. Paul Dano is wanly reactive as Nick, a struggling writer working at a homeless shelter and confronting his father there. As the latter, Robert De Niro gives a real performance in a movie that isn't equipped to deal with it. (102 min., R) (Ty Burr) ★★★ A Drummer's Dream Apparently, playing percussion requires great smiles as well as great muscles and coordination.

Just about any program of classical music written after his death, in 1750, could be called "Connected by Bach," so pervasive is the master's influence. But the quartet of pieces that Emmanuel Music assembled for its concert Saturday night at Emmanuel Church would have been welcome under any rubric: Bach's own Orchestral Suite No. 4, John Corigliano's "Fancy on a Bach Air," Stravinsky's "Dumbarton Oaks" Concerto, and then, for the second half of the evening, Stravinsky's complete "Pulcinella" ballet.

NEW YORK - For the 75th birthday of a New York musical icon, Philip Glass, the city arranged a sellout Carnegie Hall crowd and the US premiere of his Symphony No. 9. The work was performed by the American Composers Orchestra under the direction of frequent advocate Dennis Russell Davies, and on the composer's exact birthday. The celebration was a signal of both Glass's achievement and his fame. His music is oeuvre and brand, evolving through his long career in all directions - operatic, symphonic, monumental, lyrical - yet all immediately recognizable as his. Glass...

CAMBRIDGE - "Mythic Beasts: Music of Myth and Imagination" was the title of Firebird Ensemble's first program of the season, and indeed, the small audience at Longy School's Pickman Concert Hall was transported, as if on the back of a great roc, to Japan for Eric Guinivan's "Mie: Caprice for Eight Musicians" (2008), Italy for Andrew Norman's "The Companion Guide to Rome" (2010), India and Pakistan for the world premiere of Guinivan's "Avalerion," and back home for John McDonald's "Seven Album Leaves" (2011)

Asked post-show about the story behind the group's name, James Farm's tenor saxophonist Joshua Redman said, "You have to ask Eric. " That's drummer Eric Harland, who shrugged and replied, "It's just a name. " But it's really more than that; it signifies the fifth entity emerging from this collaboration between four superb musicians: Redman, Harland, pianist Aaron Parks, and bassist Matt Penman, all established or rising stars in their own right. While their acoustic instrumentation, virtuosity, and improvisational brio scream jazz,...

New York's post-punk-electro pioneers the Rapture invigorated the indie-rock world with their chaotic rhythms, disco beats, and tattered guitars melded with electronics. A decade of imitators later and you might not fault them for meandering further afield with "In the Grace of Your Love. " The expansive "How Deep Is Your Love?" revolves around a looping house-style piano riff, saxophone, and layers of dense percussion that build toward a spiritual righteousness you'd expect from a preacher on the saving-souls circuit.

New releases ★★ Being Flynn Filmmaker Paul Weitz relocates Nick Flynn's 2004 memoir from Boston to New York, but that isn't the reason the film feels directionless. Paul Dano is wanly reactive as Nick, a struggling writer working at a homeless shelter and confronting his father there. As the latter, Robert De Niro gives a real performance in a movie that isn't equipped to deal with it. (102 min., R) (Ty Burr) ★★★ A Drummer's Dream Apparently, playing percussion requires great smiles as well as great muscles and coordination.

The author of the song “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised’’ — which helped pioneer sounds that would fuse to become rap — has died in New York City. Musician Gil Scott-Heron was 62. A friend who answered the telephone listed for his Manhattan recording company confirms he died Friday afternoon at a hospital. Doris C. Nolan says he died after becoming sick upon returning from a European trip. Scott-Heron recorded “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised’’ in the 1970s in Harlem.

PERCUSSIVO MUNDO NOVO At: Johnny D's, Thursday 8 p.m. Tickets: $13. 617-766-2004, www.johnnyds.com. With his toggle-tick-controlled electronic percussion and phalanx of 20 drummers, Mikael Mutti fit right into the riotous rhythms of the Lavagem do Bonfim. Though not nearly as well known as Salvador de Bahia's massive carnival celebration, the Lavagem is an equally vivid Afro-Brazilian institution, attracting about a million people for a series of percussion-driven parades through the heart of the old seaside city every January.

The author of the song “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised’’ — which helped pioneer sounds that would fuse to become rap — has died in New York City. Musician Gil Scott-Heron was 62. A friend who answered the telephone listed for his Manhattan recording company confirms he died Friday afternoon at a hospital. Doris C. Nolan says he died after becoming sick upon returning from a European trip. Scott-Heron recorded “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised’’ in the 1970s in Harlem.