As the adventurous, formally trained Toronto percussionist Ryan Scott demonstrates with great skill on this two-CD set, many different sounds can be coaxed from a snare drum. The chain-mail-like snare that stretches across the drum’s underside can be switched on or off. The head of the drum can be struck—or rubbed, or scraped—with sticks, brushes, mallets, or, less conventionally, with a saxophone reed or a tuning fork. The rim and the shell are also there for the striking. Nevertheless, a 101-minute collection of fourteen snare-drum pieces by as many composers might strike even the most openminded music lover as a bit much. But fear not. Though that titular drum is dominant throughout, only Disc One’s hush, composed by Michael Oesterle, seems to be performed entirely, by more or less traditional means, on the snare drum—its press rolls and rata-tat-tat rim clicks evoking the instrument’s parade-band roots (marching to it, mind you, would be an insurmountable challenge).

Elsewhere, other drums and percussion instruments have walk-on parts, along with non-percussive (often electronic) instruments and human voices. Possibly under the influence of Steve Reich’s Different Trains, Brian Current’s Infantry; which opens Disc Two, calls at times for Scott to mimic, on his drum, the rhythmic inflections of taped reminiscences from once embattled soldiers. Only intermittently — for instance, the brief, charging tom-tom intrusions in Sepals (composer: Amy Brandon) — do any of the pieces incorporate something resembling a groove or straightforward timekeeping. This is music that both acknowledges and seeks to transcend the historical limitations and martial origins of what, in Scott’s hands at any rate, is a compellingly versatile instrument.

My one gripe with this interesting double album is the lack of sleeve notes; there’s a track listing and a brief overview but nothing else. I did find a useful interview with percussionist Ryan Scott on Canada’s Ludwig Van Toronto website, Scott explaining that he chose to use the snare drum “because it’s really the mother instrument of percussionists” — if you can master the snare drum, it’s likely that you’ll be able to master other percussion instruments. 14 contemporary composers were commissioned to write new works, Scott setting them no limits. There’s an enjoyably eclectic mixture here, various pieces adding extra instruments or electro-acoustic enhancements. Frequently you can’t quite believe what you’re hearing, especially when listening through headphones. Sections in Bekah Simms’ Skinscape IV are like being caught in a blizzard, while the opening of Vincent Ho’s Snap Noir could be mistaken for lowing cattle.

Scott’s own breath and voice become increasingly prominent in Emilie Cecilie LeBel’s heirloom and we hear him singing and whistling in The Far Night.fm by Nichole Lizée. A prominent electronic drone in Christina Volpini’s only ghosts threatens to steal Scott’s thunder, the two voices eventually finding equilibrium, and a resonant bass drum rings out, bell-like like in Sepals by Amy Brandon. Scott’s playing is superb throughout, his concentration and sense of intent palpable. Riveting stuff, then, and stunningly engineered — if you fancy stepping out of your comfort zone this weekend, try this.

Another recent album put out on the circuit on the Collection QB label on February 13th, 2k26 is 21st-Century Canadian Snare Drum, a nearly 100 minutes spanning 2CD longplay release by Toronto’s percussion icon that is Ryan Scott who, instead of presenting an extended solo take on his instrument of choice, a sole showcase of virtuosity, precision and his innate technical mastery, chose a different path, commissioning composers to write pieces with a distinct emphasis on the snare drum, yet with — for the most part that is — complimentary layers, minimalist often, yet also clearly distinguishable, adding depth, meaning and atmosphere to a body of work consisting of fourteen brand new works laid out and conceived between 2k21 and 2k23. Opening with Andrew Staniland’s ANTIGRAVITYDRUM the first CD starts with an intense, almost threatening metallic roll of a distinct piercing quality followed by an highly dynamic ebb and flow of feathering rythmatic changes and chiming layers of additional electronics of both percussive and playful retrofuturistic nature whereas Bekah Simms’s Skinscape IV seemingly focuses on swirling electro-acoustic explorations and manipulations of the drumhead more adjacent to experimental electronic music — Glitch, Cold Ambient and Illbient come to mind here — than traditional drumming and Christina Volpini’s Only Ghosts amalgamates suffocating low end movements, spine-tingling electrical buzzings of ever changing intensity and emerging swarms of drum rolls for an extra eerie nocturnal feel which surprisingly dissolves into Ambient’esque harmonies later on. CD 2 starts with Brian Current’s Infantry, a piece as militant, Industrial-leaning and energetic as its title suggests, layered with cut up vocal fragments and drum instructions as a means of spine-tingling sonic storytelling which also might resonate with those following the musings of the FoundSound x collage scenes and therefore probably one of our personal favorites on here whilst Jason Doell presents a series of complex polyrhythms backed by what seem to be percussive emulations of submarine sonar pings followed by extended periods of silence in Of Material Signs And Breaks, Hiroki Tsurumoto experiences an enchanted episode of mystical Ambient underwater magic backed by harsh, aggressive drum bursts and rumbles in Equipo De Sonido before Nicole Lizee’s The Far Night.FM rounds things off with the crystalline beauty of Electronica-infused synth harmonies and live drums which fall together in an almost AFX like manner and atmosphere just to lay out a rough framework of what’s to be expected from this one which will probably resonate with followers of Electroacosutic Composition and other adjacent electronic experimentalisms more than with those expecting a classic and traditional approach to drumming. Intredasting.

For those unaware, this project centers on the snare drum — an instrument heard daily around the world and, for percussionists, a benchmark of technical precision.

Toronto-based percussionist Ryan Scott presents the premiere of fourteen new solo works by Canadian composers, each created specifically for this project through commissions supported by the Canada Council for the Arts.

The collection spans a wide range of approaches. All works emphasize traditional and extended snare drum techniques in acoustic practice, while some also incorporate electronics and alternative sound sources.

Together, these pieces add new solo works to the international percussion repertoire. For performers, they offer material reflecting the challenges and possibilities of contemporary practice.

For listeners, they reveal the snare drum as a solo instrument of depth and versatility, while providing a compelling portrait of Canadian composition today.

A genuine stalwart figure in the Toronto contemporary music community and who has performed in over 400 world premieres, we are first gifted the rhythmically articulate ANTIGRAVITYDRUM and the industrially cultivated Skinscape IV and then we get the more regimented hush, sonically astute only ghosts, the impassioned Sepals, before the shuntingly emotive Time and Effort and the captivating growth of Snap Noir are brought forth.

Along next is the aptly titled, spoken word-imbibed Infantry and the mechanized heirloom and they are in turn backed by the melodious of material signs and breaks, the ethereally absorbent equipo de sonido, before the set rounds out on the veritably crystalline, at first, fervent latterly FOMO, the disciplined pebbles, coming to the a close on the spatial awareness of The Far Night.fm.

A number of decades ago my wife and I attended a fabulous concert by superlative percussionist (now Dame) Evelyn Glennie at the George Weston Recital Hall. The piece that has stuck with me for all these years was PRIM by Icelandic composer Áskell Másson, a ten-minute composition using only one snare drum.

The result was transfixing (you can see a performance on YouTube). I would never have imagined that a single drum could be so compelling.

That being said I was a little daunted when I encountered Ryan Scott new double CD 21st-Century Canadian Snare Drum. Any qualms I had were quickly put to rest as I began to listen. While the snare drum does indeed figure prominently in the 14 works, almost all of them include additional resources, be it spoken word, electronic processing, prerecorded soundtracks, or requiring Scott to perform in other ways. One notable exception is Michael Oesterle’s brilliant, ironically titled hush (2022) with its seven minutes of just sticks on skin.

Anna Höstman’s pebbles also uses the unadorned drum in a piece inspired by the words of artist Rockwell Kent, while Scott whistles and hums fragments of melodic material.

Andrew Staniland’s ANTIGRAVITYDRUM begins with the drum alone, its snare springs disconnected. Two and a half minutes later an engaging soundtrack begins, filled with electronic effects and MIDI-instruments in counterpoint with the still snare-less drum. Bekah Simms’ Skinscape IV involves Scott’s interaction with an electronic, disembodied version of the snare drum, transforming “something intimately familiar into something processed and alien.” Christina Volpini’s only ghosts finds Scott producing a harmonica drone over a soundtrack reminiscent of waves upon a shore. FOMO (Fear of Missing Out) by Kati Agócs is scored for snare drum, kick drum and two large metal plates. It is a sparse piece in which “the soloist enacts a kind of stream-of-consciousness pantomime, searching for something inchoate, elusive, and potentially unreachable.”

Perhaps the most idiosyncratic work is Brian Current’s abrasive Infantry which delves into the militaristic implications of the snare, with pre-recorded texts by soldiers from different backgrounds and periods of history and percussive interjections. The set concludes with Nicole Lizée’s The Dark Night.fm, in which “analogue synths and slowed-down voice smears… wrap themselves around Scott’s nimble percussion and vocal interjections.”

All of the above, plus works from Amy Brandon, Monica Pearce, Vincent Ho, Emilie Cecilia LeBel, Jason Doell and Hiroki Tsurumoto ensure that these dises never devolve into “too much of a much-ness.” They provide a welcome showcase for the diversity of Canadian composition at this point in time and a stunning platform for the many talents of Ryan Scott (principal percussionist of Esprit Orchestra, artistic director of Continuum Contemporary Music and a member of the Canadian Opera Company Orchestra).

Contemporary compositions for solo percussion are not exactly commonplace, neither in academic contemporary music nor in free jazz, improvisation or DIY experimental contexts somewhere in between. Canadian snare virtuoso Ryan Scott, a friend and occasional collaborator of the Canadian string quartet Quatuor Bozzini, consequently gathers the compositions on 21st-Century Canadian Snare Drum (Collection QB, 13 February) from all corners of the scene and beyond. The often central, but not always dominant, instrument is a military-style snare drum, from which Scott has, however, banished all martial elements. It is impressive what works here, and interesting what does not — and what a wealth of timbre can be drawn from purely percussive sounds.