Anyway, of course when we got to the thing it was miserable, crumbling, and broken, and we had to wait for nearly an hour while a guy with a mallet climbed up to the top and bashed a few loose screws back into place.
As it got close to 11, Mr. Vaglio set down his mallets, picked up a mandolin, and played an Italian folksong called "Malafemmina".
The result is an Alice in Wonderland-like croquet game, where the wickets move around, the balls scurry away and the mallets curl up and eye you angrily.
And when he emerges from the studio closet with oddities like a bass harmonica, a theremin, banjos and water jugs (played with a mallet), they end up sounding familiar and completely right.
So Percussion's energetic account of the Mallet Quartet pointed up one of Mr. Reich's current modes of propulsion: a two-tiered approach in which the rhythmically repetitive backdrop that listeners hear as Minimalist (and as the music's distinctively Reichian signature) is offset by restless, melodically adventurous top lines.
Coarsely chop the nuts (you can also place them in a large sealable plastic bag and pound with a mallet to break up the nuts).
Once you've loosely constructed your enclosure, tap the panels and the connector tabs with your mallet to square up each section Dig holes for posts.
Place the ice in a plastic bag and gently, slowly bash the bag with a wooden mallet to break up the ice.
Only after the piece had been going for a minute or so did the percussion soloist, Colin Currie, sneak onstage and pick up mallets.
Nobody shrieks, or repeatedly pounds their fists against it, or tries to smash it with mallets, or picks up a spade and starts digging under it.
