The Silent Trumpet. A micro-oratorio for two-part choir and soprano/kazoo soloist. Michael Winikoff

Transcription

1 The Si Trumet A microoratorio for twoart choir and sorano/kazoo soloist Michael Winikoff One uon a time, a long time ago, there was a city. It knew good times, and it knew troubled times. But in times of trouble, the eole would be ned by a trumet, a si trumet, that only could be heard. If listened. Can hear it? The si trumet? It is calling, calling. War. War. Can hear it, the si trumet? The eole rosered and grew comfortable. Comfort led to confidence. Confidence to arrogance. The eole grew confid and arrogant. And they stoed liste to the trumet. Wee for the eole who will not listen, who will not hear the trumet. For trouble follows them, all the days of their lives. Will listen to the trumet? Will hear the trumet when it calls to r? Will hear it? Will hear it, the si trumet, calling to r? Calling to r...

2 Program Notes In this age of text messages and twitters, it seems aroriate to consider microoratorios as an art form. The Si Trumet is a microoratorio, written for choir and soloist. The text, by the comoser, tells a arable, about a si trumet. This be seen as a metahor for many things. A toical interretation might involve sciists and climate change. In comosing The Si Trumet, a key constraint was that I wanted to write a iece that ROCS would be able to erform, and erform well. For the sake of safety, that meant sticking to fewer arts than the traditional SATB. After thought (and realising that the ROCS songbook had a number of twoart ieces), I settled on trying to see what I could do with only two arts. Now, two art writing tends to be quite sarse, which lends itself to a somewhat medieval feel. So, I layed on this in the oe rocession, adding ercussion (in the form of staming), and using the medievalsounding Dorian mode. Twoart writing also lends itself naturally to ons, and these are used in a few laces in the work. As one might exect from a microoratorio, the work is quite brief, with a simle structure. The oe rocession is followed by a recitative resing the arable. The cral movem, Can hear it?, goes beyond two art, adding a solo art which alternates between singing and laying the kazoo (reresing the trumet). This is followed by a short choral recitative (in unison), and then the work concludes with a lam (in on). Performance Notes The women and men resectively should divide evenly between High and Low. Men should sing an octave lower than notated (retend it s in tenor clef). The solo art is for a sorano. Perhas a longstanding ROCS member, with a enchant for kazoos and a PhD in comuter science might be interested? The text si trumet should be ronounced as sirumet, that is, with only a single t (and definitely should not be misread as strumet!). Consonants should generally be laced on the following rests, so for instance, in bar 82, the nce of confidence comes on the last quaver in the bar (the and of four and ). The movems should run into each other without any gas. Procession: The choir should rocess on, staming the rhythm while singing (this will take a little ractice!). Ideally this work should come at the start of the concert, or after an interval. The reeated art of the rocession (bars 69) should be reeated as many times as needed. As each choir member reaches their onstage osition they should sto staming. Once there is no more staming, then the choir should roceed to bar 10. Can hear it: The climax of the movem is bar 58, which reress sirens (think ambulance, not mythological singers!).

3 Duration arox. 77:0 minutes The Si Trumet I. Procession Michael Winikoff = 60 m High Low mm m mm mm Staming 6 1,2.. mm II. Recitative Solo 12 Freely (recitative) once uon a time, a long time a go there was a ci ty, it knew 15 good times and it knew troubled times troubled times sf but in times of 19 trouble the eole would be ned by a trum et, a sil trum et that on ly could be Coyright 2010 Michael Winikoff, All Rights Reserved

4 22 heard, semiwhisered if listened, if listened, semiwhisered if listened III. Can hear it? High 26 = 67 Low hear it, hear it, the si trum et the si 0 hear it, hear it, the si gradual cresc. trum et the si trum et, hear it, gradual cresc. hear it, the si trum et hear it, trum et the si trum et, trum et it is cal ling cal ling hear it, the si trum et the si trum et it is cal ling 7 (kazoo) mf Solo f cal ling cal ling calling cal ling f in r cal ling cal ling cal ling in r 2, echo gradual cresc. hear it hear it gradual cresc. hear it, 2 hear it the sil

5 6 (sung) mf the sil trum et the sil trum et hear it trum et the sil trum et, hear it hear it 9 hear it, hear it the sil trum et the sil hear it, the sil trum et the sil trum et the the sil trum et the sil trum et the sil trum et 52 trum et cal ling in r sil trum et cal ling in r the sil trum et cal ling 56 (kazoo) ff, sirenlike ff, sirenlike ff, sirenlike 61 in r in r

6 66 cal ling cal ling 72 gradual dim to end in all arts High Women Low Women (semi whisered) High Men 8 (semi whisered) hear it hear it Low Men 75 8 hear it, hear it, the sil slower, freely 8 the sil trumet the sil trum et 8 trumet the sil trum et

7 IV. Recitative All 8 79 = 60 mf The eole rosered and grew com forta ble comfort led to confidence con fi dence to ar rogance 2 the eole grew confid and arrogant and they 87 2 stoed li ste to the trum et stoed li ste to the trum et V. Lam 91 m High wee for the m eo le the eo le who will not li sten, who will not hear the Low 9 wee for the eo le the eo le who will not li sten, who will not hear the trum et, for trou ble fol lows them, for trou ble fol lows them all the 97 trum et, for trou ble fol lows them, for trou ble fol lows them all the days, the days of their lives. wee for the 100 days, the days of their lives. eo le the eo le who will not li sten, who will not hear the trum et, for trou ble 10 fol lows them, for trou ble fol lows them all the days, the days of their 106 wee for the eo le the eole who will not li sten, who will not hear the lives. will li sten to the trum et will hear the trum et, for trou ble fol lows them, for trou ble fol lows them all the 5

8 109 trum et when it calls, calls calls to r days, the days of their lives. will li sten to the 112 to r, will hear it? will hear it, the si trum et cal ling trum et will hear the trum et when it calls, calls 115 cal ling to r will hear it, will hear it, the si trumet calls to r to r, will hear it? will hear it, the 118 rit. the sil trum et rit. cal ling to r si trumet cal ling cal ling to r 21 February