Duckwall Artist Series: Sticks and Hammers

No Tickets Required

Sticks and Hammers is a piano and percussion collective featuring pianists Dr. Daniel Rieppel (Southwest Minnesota State University) and Dr. David Viscoli (Minnesota State University, Mankato), with percussionists Erich Rieppel (Minnesota Orchestra), Pedro Fernandez (Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra), and Dr. Carlos Camacho (University of Panama). The ensemble has performed at the New World Center in Miami Beach, Florida; the Alfredo de Saint-Malo International Music Festival in Panama City, Panama; and Southwest Minnesota State University in Marshall, Minnesota. Sticks and Hammers made its first commission to composer Samuel Robles, who wrote Las Campanas del Diablo. The work was premiered by the ensemble at the Alfredo de Saint-Malo Festival in Panama City in 2024, followed by its United States premiere at Southwest Minnesota State University. Rapidly gaining national attention, the ensemble will appear this spring at Butler University and Middle Tennessee State University. Béla Bartók (1881–1945) Sonata for Two Pianos and Percussion (1937) One of Bartók’s most frequently performed works, the Sonata for Two Pianos and Percussion was premiered in Basel, Switzerland, in 1938 and received its American premiere in New York City in 1940. Bartók himself and his second wife, Ditta Pásztory-Bartók, performed the piano parts on both occasions. Percussionists Fritz Schiesser and Philipp Rühlig played the Basel premiere, while Saul Goodman and Henry Deneke performed in New York. The sonata is cast in three movements. The first, a modified sonata form, is as long as the second and third movements combined. The second movement follows a classic ABA structure and exemplifies Bartók’s characteristic “Night Music” style. The third movement is a vigorous, rondo-like dance. Bartók provides unusually detailed performance instructions, specifying not only the types of sticks to be used by the percussionists but also precise striking locations on instruments such as the cymbals. He also carefully dictates the physical layout of the performers, underscoring the work’s innovative approach to ensemble balance and color. Cesar Bresgen (1913–1988) Bilder des Todes (1966) Composed between 1965 and 1966, Bilder des Todes (Images of Death) is inspired by the renowned “Dance of Death” woodcuts by Hans Holbein the Younger. In these iconic images, Death appears as a skeletal figure who intrudes upon the lives of people from every social class—from pope and emperor to peasant and child. Bresgen translates this visual narrative into a musical landscape that is at once archaic, rhythmically driven, and hauntingly modern. Premiered in Vienna in 1967, the work is considered one of Bresgen’s most significant instrumental compositions. Reflecting his lifelong engagement with religious and existential themes, Bilder des Todes stands as a powerful modern meditation on mortality. Samuel Robles (b. 1974) Las Campanas del Diablo (2024) Las Campanas del Diablo is inspired by the Corpus Christi celebrations in the town of La Villa, in the province of Los Santos, Panama. Introduced by Spanish clergy, Corpus Christi celebrations in Panama—much like those in the Iberian Peninsula—symbolize the struggle between good and evil and the ultimate triumph of light over darkness through divine mercy. Robles honors these traditions by highlighting the central role of bells throughout the festivities: church bells, hand bells, and the small bells attached to dancers’ costumes and ceremonial objects. The work is dedicated to the memory of Julieta Alvarado, a musicologist who devoted her life to the study and preservation of Panamanian musical traditions. Julieta was Erich’s mother and Daniel Rieppel’s late wife.