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Home / Compositions / The Crantock Gulls

The Crantock Gulls (2004)

7 minutes
for 2 drummers

For two drummers, situated as far apart as possible, each playing five drums of varying size, from bass drum to bongo

First performance by Match Percussion, Sydney Conservatorium of Music, 23 March 2005

Buy Score (AMC) Listen on SoundCloud Purchase on CD

In 2003, with my permission, Daryl Pratt and Alison Eddington of Match Percussion made a duo version of my solo drumming piece, Composition in Blue, Grey and Pink (1993), and played it on an Australian tour. Later the same year, Kevin Man and Kerryn Joyce of Karak Percussion played their own duo version of the same piece. I never heard either arrangement, but I can take a hint.

I began this drumming duo one rainy day in July 2004 in the tiny coastal village of Crantock in Cornwall, where the seagulls are unusually vociferous and squawk in polymetres. I was there on holiday with my parents who were celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary, and the piece is dedicated to them.

Reviews

The Crantock Gulls, named after the small Cornish village, were prey to polymetre squawking seagulls according to Ford and if his music successfully conveys it – and I’ve not misunderstood it – it was also raining like crazy... The arresting tattoos are increasingly and uncomfortably fractious.

Jonathan Woolf, Musicweb International

The gulls are noisy, the sea is rough, the drumming drives hard.

Glyn Pursglove, Musicweb International

Instrumentations: Instrumental (solo and duo), Instrumental - percussion

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