other islands for four players violin, soprano sax, piano & computer nick fells 2009

Transcription

1 fo fou playes violin, sopano sax, piano compute nick fells 2009

2 nick fells fo ensemle intégales, octoe 2009 this piece is fo fou playes: sopano sax, violin, piano and compute (ith maxmsp softae) it lasts aout 11 minutes thee ae some mateials povided: a maxmsp patch, hich pefoms live pocessing ut also incopoates a pe-detemined soundtack pinted scoe elements thee ae sections in the piece, and these un continuously: one fuckes ( ) to capiccio (2 ) thee intecouse (ingo) ( 8 12 ) fou scheme ( ) five chippie ( ) the names of sections elate to social inteactions aound the steets of Glasgo, hee it as ceated The islands of the title ae can e thought of as socially constituted ithin the ensemle islands often isolated ut also in sight of one anothe the five sections ae delineated in the soundtack hich plays ack continuously thoughout the piece fom ithin the max patch The timings of the sections ae given aove to kno hee these section changes occu, thee ae seveal options: eithe use a stopatch, use cues given y the max opeato, o lean the diffeences in the acking tack aually in each section thee is diffeent instumentation as follos: one piano and sax to violin solo thee violin and sax, piano oins fou piano solo five violin, sax and piano in all sections, the max patch captues the live sound of the ensemle and pocesses it, ceating anothe textual laye it ould help to memoise the guidelines elo as much as possile Thee ae no pats, ut playes could make thei on notes of the sections thee is a high degee of feedom aout hat is actually played in each section one fuckes violin is tacet in this section sax: make a soft ed of noise (eath/eed), that you can aticulated delicately This povides souce mateial fo the max patch Play this ith the pupose of feeding the mic/max patch ith sound fo susequent pocessing (the pocessed sound actually doesn t come in until to capiccio) piano piano has notation fo this The mateial itten is not to e played as itten the itten mateial is to e thought of as a coe, fom hich you deive the actual played mateial Claification: the music poceeds in the nomal ay (left to ight), ith the pitches given But you ae asked to intepet heavily cut into the mateial y making shot stops, vay the hythm in a stutteing, halting ay, change pitches, eaticulate notes, accent and suddenly e-aticulate quietly; aound 1 hen the mateial expands, vay chods y tansposing, add notes all acoss the ange of the instument, and eintepet the mateial quite feely and enegetically Enegy levels can e minimum to maximum possile The itten notes should pesist though this faily fee inteplay Make sue you finish at the ight time, ust afte the ass dops out in the soundtack and hen to capiccio stats to capiccio 2 piano and sax ae tacet in this section violin the violin has notation fo this The itten scoe is clealy not playale as such The scoe is deived fom a paticula edition of nicolo paganini s capices that offeed cetain typogaphic possiilities Ty to play the scoe, ut the sound of tying is hat is anted hee Again, this is souce mateial fo the max patch pocessing athe than a musical line in its on ight it cannot eally e thought of adequately in isolation fom the electonic pocessing povided in the max patch Hoeve, as a guide, the sound of tying to find paticula places on the instument, tying to find pitches ithout eing sue of hat they ae intended to e the sound of the o, the accidents, the knocking of finges on the fingeoad and so on, the eleasing of finges; these ae all desiale sounds The music is fast and vituosic in oigin, of couse, ut hee is all ut oliteated; the intention is not to e vituosic hee We do not kno hat sound ill occu as a esult of tying to find something to play in this If you get to the end of the itten mateial, go ack to some point and ty again Be aae of hat is happening in the soundtack at this point you ae intetining ith its ganula elements thee intecouse (ingo) 8 12 piano is tacet hee until hen a high noise entes in the soundtack At this point, oin, y playing a vey sloly epeated high D ( octaves aove middle C) At 7 0 you ll hea an F# in the acking tack at this point, stat playing F# as ell as the epeated D

3 sax and violin: in the soundtack, thee is a voice hich intones in epeated pattens using pitches of appoximately concet A, E, and C# elo (in the middle C octave) Listen to the pattens Play togethe, in heteophony ith each othe and ith the soundtack (depating fom the soundtack and playing feely) Pitches should not stick to those in the soundtack ut can etun to them Use you udgement Sax leads violin follos, though oth stat togethe and as soon as you hea the voice in the soundtack fou scheme violin and sax tacet piano: has notation hee As in one fuckes, develop a 'style' of tavesing the mateial, hich is you individual intepetation in esponse to heaing the style of the accompanying soundtack As in fuckes, the style should e halting, feezing cetain notes/chods, stutteing, o hee even playing keys ithout eing ale to get notes to sound - a kind of osessive inaility to make an utteance at all The noise of playing the keyoad itself might ecome a featue in this case five chippie eveyone plays hee listen caefully to hat is going on piano play inside the instument ith a contact micophone, making contact ith the stings themselves This is souce mateial fo the max patch and should e played in conunction ith it (ie listen caefully to the electonics) Oveall, as a guide, hen playing ith the compute the compute ill captue all the peaks of loudness in you playing it aims to captue anything it thinks is an event This includes tiny, quiet sounds (hich ill also e picked-up) Theefoe, hen playing, it is useful to think of a halting, stutteing style, ith gaps eteen events a chance fo the softae to isolate and captue the events you ae playing It is also desiale to include nomally undesied sounds To discuss any aspect of the piece feel fee to get in touch ith me diect (nickfells@glasgoacuk) Dialogue and discussion is integal to the pocess of ealising the piece and the composition is not fixed Thoughts and contiutions ae elcomed

4 notation coe fo section one - fuckes Sopano Sax q = 4 4 (tempo: listen and match tempo to the pulse head in the 'soundtack' of the compute pat) Play sustained, soft noise, aticulated fom time to time, and ith little sounds ithin Gadually allo the little sound (high tiny sounds) to emege moe, as time pogesses 4 Piano 4 This notated mateial is not to e played simply as itten - it should e used accoding to the guidelines given in the accompanying text Ó Ó # Ó S Sx 8 allo tiny high sounds to emege fom noise J 8 # ()

5 S Sx 1 1 # () n n H LH K S Sx Ó () J n # # # # # J J # K #

6 notation coe fo to - capiccio piano and sax - tacet violin:

7 notation coe fo fou - scheme violin and sax - tacet piano - the mateial is not to e played diectly as itten See guideliness povided in accompanying text 4 Ó # # # # n # Ô Piano 4 # # # # n # K 4 # # # n n # # # n # 7 # n J n # n n

8 10 1 # # n # # n n n J n # n Ó # Ó