Hamermusic by Julian BroadhurstMPm

Hamermusic - Metal Percussion music, MPm 12 - my 104th album. Monumental Metal Pieces of a severe kind.

“An inharmonious Blacksmith - raging in his Metalshop - 'hand in glove' - Hamers in Hand - 'he flails at the surfaces around him' - sparks 'resounding' in the half light. Two 'Pitched' battles for Man and Metal, rhythm and resolution - beggaring belief in its ferocity. Stand back, buckle up and be swept to an edge of music itself.

"A 'clinking, clanking, clattering collection of caliginous junk"

The Wizard of Oz [insulting the Tin Woodsman]

"All in the service of music, Metrics and Rhythm, Oh, and the thousand natural shocks that flesh is heir to".

The Tin Woodsman [replying to the Wizard]

That is quite an introduction I gave myself some years ago - it is true for the most part - neither the Tim Man nor the Wizard would argue. As for being swept to the edge of music itself - well there is more than a grain of truth in that grand statement which I didn’t unpack - which would show the truth of it. Writing now for the British Library Edition of my work I am writing my Legacy - it is now or never - so lets Unpack it.

What did I mean by the edge of music ? Well, the edge of meaningfulness, the edge of the definitional object of music - that music has a definitional Limit Case. Making such pieces I have asked myself for a definition of what music is. I found that was effectively achieved by defining what music is not and thereby using the negation of what it is to define a limit case.

First of all it is about sound - a consideration of sound of A Sound - necessitating a beginning and an end - as a consideration of A Sound that is your canvass. In and of itself it has a limit. A sound that lasts forever is not considerable in human terms. Is not an action in human terms. An action is a human Consideration. In Art then - as music our sound must be limited to a human consideration - to a process of performance or deliberation.

Music then - I define as ‘Sound, Considerable As Time And Process. Nothing Less than this can be music. I say that by this John Cage’s 4’ 33’ is not music - it is performance Art. An hour of listening to the rain fall is conceptual art. Don’t give me selecting the sound - without human agency - sound is just that - it is insufficient for the title of music. It also follows that an undefined graphic is not a musical term, any ‘interpretation of graphic score belongs to the performer and not the ‘Composer’ - it is not sufficient for a Composer to call it their music. Undefined graphic score is not music it is Visual Art. As a visual artist who has had his work played I am qualified to say that.

Hamermusic - Hamerline - Rh 414 and Hamergigue - Rh 415 . Know that in the light of what I have just said. I call these pieces music - weather it is beyond coherence is not itself a definitional point - else we should have to dismiss total serialism as meaningless - when it is the exact opposite of that. Perception is a matter of personal degree - agency is not. A Sound has agency or it dose not.

A very special event occurred in the Apartment building I was living in at the this time - whilst I was working on the Documentation of the Sonatas and Studies for the past few albums. Some kind of Electro-mechanical device in the building’s utility room went of its face - shaking everybody’s world for a while - I was fascinated and had to record it. But how could I use it ? It had timing and measure - with a bag of studio processing I put layers of it together to create Fields of Disruption - infact there are six versions of it from an A strand. I have now rejected all of those for B versions of the pieces from a B strand of the Consideration, my agency and process. Finally and only through compiling my British library Edition - step by minute stem - have I come to a working version of these pieces. I commend them to you. They sail deliciously close to the edge of definitional music and at that time that was their purpose and it is still.




The Outer Blue Album Group - MPm Indices


An early reorganization of my music research interests had defined my music into dedicated sets of Albums. This way things of a kin got heard together - as one type of album or another - by Genre - or Tranche as I styled them. In this case Metal Percussion music, MPm, percussion on anything other than Drums. By Convention MPm.

Beginning as a percussionist my first 7 albums are for Drums of various kinds, Drum music or Dm, my first area of research interest or Tranche. I soon realised there was a second area of percussion, as a generality over a specialism - percussion on anything other than Drums, Metal Percussion music, or MPm. The third of five is the Phase music, realised by tape looping and timing, Phm. The fourth, a genre of Electro Acoustic composition, Music for Strings, Electronics and Percussion, or MSEP. The last genre is Electronic music, Em, taking the longest processing detour from an original acoustic source.

Album numbers 96 to the End [that is to my last numbered album] - form my Fifth ‘Group’ - a 5th time division across my Genres, my Outer Blue Group. The End being what it will be, but I have no plans, at the time of writing, in August 2020, to number any further albums, the given End being 142. This all builds on the foundational 'Blue Cherry Group' [where I had introduced my 5 areas of research interest] and the big 'New Horizon Group' - [where I explored to see where these five genres were leading me]. There then seemed to be a ‘band of gold’ across my discography. My Golden Band Group, that mark a particularly successful time for me. The albums that follow that, 76 to the End, are a ‘Blue Horizon’ - after the phrase ‘blue sky research’ - the ‘Blue Horizon Group.’ For convenience, I divided this Huge area into the Inner and the Outer Blue. So my Fourth Group is the Inner Blue Group. Then a Fifth and last Group builds upon that - my outer Blue Horizon - or Outer Blue Group.

There are eleven MPm Albums in the Outer Blue Group MPm 12 to 22. Mostly as a result of a big flowering of MPm work as I was preparing to leave my apartment on Kedleston road to inherite the Family house after the death of my Father. It took two years to actually move, plenty of time for a lot of music. With a couple MPm albums after that - [including my very ‘last’ album - album 142 Quarlium] - all following a fortuitous invitation from the British Library to compile an Edition.

[] Album MPm 12 Hamermusic - an inharmonious Blacksmith - raging in his Metalshop - 'hand in glove' - Hammers in Hand - 'he flails at the surfaces around him' - sparks 'resounding' in the half light. Two 'Pitched battles for rhythm and resolution - beggaring belief in its ferocity. Stand back, buckle up and be swept to an edge of music itself - Almost.

[] Album MPm 13 ‘45’23 - Metal Percussion Solo in 11 parts’ perfection in description - percussion on metal tubes. This was released in August 2013 - it would be four years before the next MPm Release - in October 2017 - at the start of my renewed interest in MPm - with nine further albums in quick succession.

[] Album Mpm14 Footfall A & B edit. Is the first of this new music. I had noticed that when using my Apartment block stairwell - I would probe its huge resonance, its railings and steps, with my feet and stick. As time came to leave I recorded myself doing this - timing it as if it were a work each time I had to record this. I made these two works from it.

[] Album MPm 15 Inventions for steel casing is a farewell to a friend - The Huge boiler in the old family house and its wonderful casing - where I taught myself to play as a boy - on the dozens of tones it had. I caught these final sessions with it.
Album MPm 16 Impromptus in Four and Three parts - that is in sets of 4 and 3 parts respectively on the large concrete landing of my apartment block on huge cardboard packages - the natural reverb was beautiful.

Album MPm 17 Six Sonatas for Metal Percussion - six fast paced, nimble pieces for solo percussionist on a metal object. In this case a metal unit live in my Isabel studio - August 2017. A sonata as a display piece is the reference point for these.

[] Album MPm 18 Inventions for industrial Unit. Ten inventions for percussion on the back of an industrial Freezer - it's radiating grills and Body.

[] Album MPm 19 - Now is Not the Time for Dancing - Two sets of six inventions for MP - for two people who have been pivotal to me in the music world and great friends both, The Tom Hewitt and the Frances Magdalene Wilson Inventions and also 4 pieces for left hand alone.

[] Album MPm 20 Parellelia - Automation for Mechanical Clock, well mot quite - there were actually no clocks involved. Coupled with Performance on an English Iron work - Rh 574.

- Of note here is the ‘Performance Park Pale - Rh 563’ - a performance on a Park’s Metal fencing - to be found on the Album Dm 26 - Double Up ! Next question ‘Well when did you last see it ?’ It Fixed up on the wrong album. These things happen.

[] Album MPm 21 Performance in Plastic. Pioneering performance using two plastic vessels as drum sticks - for a whole range of tones, textures and rhythms.

[] Album MPm 22 Quarlium - my 142nd and last, numbered album -I think I have just about covered it now. Returning to the heavy grade steel vessel of the ‘Inventions for Steel Vassal’ - album MPm 8 - along time ago. This time with a full sonata - my fourth sonata for tuned metal.

Outer Blue Group - MPm

DCM 096 - Em 38 - Blue Dark Marine
DCM 097 - MSEP 22 - Sn for Solo Cello 1 & 2
DCM 098 - Dm 15 - Sn for Solo Drum no. 9
DCM 099 - MSEP 23 - Sn & St for Solo Cello
DCM 100 - Dm 16 - W Dances 8 - 14
DCM 101 - Em 39 - Dodecette
DCM 102 - MSEP 24 - Luigi
DCM 103 - Dm 17 - Dm Sonata No.10

[] DCM 104 -MPm 12 - Hamermusic []

DCM 105 - MSEP 25 - Consort music for Strings

[] DCM 106 -MPm 13 - 45’23 - MP solo in 11 parts []

DCM 107 - Dm 18 - Zen Yen Zen
DCM 108 - Dm 19 - Metronomics 1 - 3
DCM 109 - MSEP 26 - Nabucco - Om
DCM 110 - EM 40 - Profusion
DCM 111 - Em 41 - Canticle for pure Copper
DCM 112 - Phm 12 - Pasterales for wind group
DCM 113 - Arkiv - Arkiv
DCM 114 - Em 42 - Funeral Music
DCM 115 - MSEP 27 - The U.O. L. [Sym no 2]
DCM 116 - MSEP 28 - Sinph V. [Sym no. 3]
DCM 117 - MSEP 29 - Symphony no. 4
DCM 118 - DM 20 - Table music
DCM 119 - Dm 21 - Konnyek
DCM 120 - MSEP 30 - Codasolo
DCM 121 - Dm 22 - 5th Inv. for Djembe
DCM 122 - Dm 23 - Drum Mantra
DCM 123 - MSEP 31 - Symphony no. 5
DCM 124 - Dm 24 - 6th Inv. for Djembe

[] DCM 125 -MPm 14 - Footfall A & B Edit []
[] DCM 126 -MPm 15 - Inv. for Steel Casing []
[] DCM 127 -MPm 16 - Impromp. in 4 and 3 Parts []
[] DCM 128 -MPm 17 - Six Sonatas for MP []
[] DCM 129 -MPm 18 - Inv for Industrial. Unit []
[] DCM 130 -MPm 19 - Now is N. t. T. For Dancing []
[] DCM 131 -MPm 20 - Parellelia []

DCM 132 - MSEP 32 - Organum

[] DCM 133 -MPm 21 - Performance in Plastic []

DCM 134 - Em 43 - Gout - B Version
DCM 135 - Em 44 - Vibra. Blue Light – B V.
DCM 136 - Dm 25 - Sn for Solo Drum 11 &12
DCM 137 - MSEP 33 - They Make Music
DCM Ark - Dm Arkiv - Sometime Live
DCM 138 - Dm 26 - Double Up [+ Per. Pa. Pale]
DCM 139 - Dm 27 - In an English Parish Ch.
DCM 140 MPm 22 - - Quarlium
DCM 141 MSEP 34 - A Little Less than K.
DCM 142 MSEP 35 - Gregorious A & B
DCM 143 MSEP 36 - Entangled A.B & C



The DCM album numbers list volumes in a [for the most part]
chronological edition - the ‘DCM Broadhurst Edition’ - Prepared for the British Library in 2020. The volumes or albums themselves were actually released as and when it was possible. The Edition though, was planned from the start to stand on the 'foundation Stone' of the Blue Cherry group.

The Rh catalogue, numbers my individual works in order of Completion.