Alternative Facts
for percussion quartet
Suspicious Motives Music
ERIC CHASALOW
Alternative Facts (2023)
for percussion quartet
Commissioned By
Talujon Percussive Arts Society Massachusetts Chapter Iktus Percussion
Percussion on the Sound Queens College Percussion Ensemble
University of Michigan Percussion Ensemble University of Georgia Percussion Ensemble
Verona High School Percussion Ensemble
Suspicious Motives Music
Alternative Facts (2023)
for percussion quartet
DUR: ca. 19:30
I. Like a spirited drum corps that keeps falling apart
II. With calm resignation, tinged with sadness
III. Scrambling in and out of a groove
IV. Ponderous
V. An ever-growing hocket, with precision
VI. Obsessive, intense
VII. A disintegrating ritual procession - focused but futile
Accidentals in the marimba part follow the tonal convention and carry through the bar, in octave.
NOTES
Alternative Facts often requires the players to recite text while playing. Much of this text consists of "found poetry" assembled by me from the publicly available, obsessive, repetitive, climate-change denying tweets and rants of a well-known New York real estate "developer" and TV personality. Movement II starts with my own composed lines and ends with a paraphrase of physicist, Carl Sagan. Movement III is my own version of a demented, sycophantic Greek Chorus riffing in a nonsensical way on the larger context for the ranting that follows in subsequent movements.
In many cases, the score provides rhythms for the text. Sometimes the text is spoken to the same rhythms being played on the instruments. In other cases, words are recited without also playing instruments - sometimes with no rhythm indicated. Care should be taken to develop effective, ways of delivering the text in each movement that serves the moment. The players should strive to inflect the text like natural speech, even though much of the notation uses a single note position to indicate the rhythm. The choice to use a single note was made to make the lines easier to read and does not imply a monotone delivery.
When regular noteheads are used, play and speak the same rhythm. "x" noteheads indicate that rhythms are spoken without playing any instruments. At all times, seek a natural inflection of the text rather than rhythmic precision.
Each player should think of themselves as playing a character - a messenger delivering these texts and not the actual person who first expressed them.
If desired, the recited text may be doubled by additional players in some or all movements, so long as this is done with enough precision for the text to be understood. Larger ensembles may also wish to assign movements to different players to allow for more participation.
TECHNICAL
Accidentals in the marimba part follow the tonal convention and carry through the bar in octave.
Ideally, each player will be fitted with a headset microphone such as those made by DPA or Countryman and subtly amplified so that the text can be heard even in passages with louder percussion.
Alternative Facts (for percussion quartet) – Eric Chasalow
I. Like a spirited drum corps that keeps falling apart
II. With calm resignation, tinged with sadness
We sense something grave is happening but there is nowhere to go and so, we slide back into superstition and darkness.
III. Scrambling in and out of a groove hoax, hoax never a contradiction of the precious hoax invention of a new hoax We, ourselves are the hoax We are the cleanest We are the We have clarity so We have confidence in this hoax
Which we have exceeded Exceedingly, constantly, repeatedly Endlessly repeated Real because I said so And Holy
IV. Ponderous, telling the story, somewhat mocking
It is really too bad that the scientists studying GLOBAL WARMING in Antarctica got stuck on their icebreaker because of massive ice and cold.
Newly released emails prove that scientists have manipulated data on global warming. The data is unreliable.
The rescue icebreaker, trying to free the ship of the GLOBAL WARMING scientists, has turned back-the ice is massive (a record). IRONIC!
The global warming scientists don't want to be airlifted off the ship-they are having too much fun and that is too simple a solution-FAME!
Temperature at record lows in many parts of the country. 50 degrees below zero with wind chill in large area. Global warming folks iced in!
What the hell is going on with GLOBAL WARMING. The planet is freezing, the ice is building and the G.W. scientists are stuck-a total con job…This very expensive GLOBAL WARMING bullshit has got to stop. Our planet is freezing, record low temps, and our GW scientists are stuck in ice.
It's 46º (really cold) and snowing in New York - tell the so-called "scientists" that we want global warming right now!
V. An ever-growing hocket, with precision
It’s freezing and snowing in New York
It’s freezing and snowing in New York City
Jerusalem and Lebanon in Texas and Arizona, Oklahoma, Denver and Minnesota, Baltimore and New York City
Weather across the country brutal must be all of that global warming. What the hell ever happened to global warming! Thirty-two degrees in New York – it’s freezing! Where the hell is global warming when you need it?
VI. Obsessive, intense
It used to be called something What was it?
What was that something That I obsessed about But now, just can’t remember, and they changed it. They changed it! They changed it. Why?
They renamed it Climate Change so it could be devastating either way the temperature goes. Why? Oh, why did they have to change it?
They only changed the term to CLIMATE CHANGE when the words GLOBAL WARMING didn't work anymore. Come on people, get smart!
Don't let the dollar sucking wiseguys change names midstream because the first name didn't work. Are we still wasting billions on the global warming con? We should be focusing on beautiful, clean air & not on wasteful & very expensive GLOBAL WARMING bullshit!
Sad!
VII. A disintegrating ritual - focused
© 2023 Eric Chasalow
Instrument setup
Each player’s station will have many of the same elements, described below. While many details are not specified, care should be taken to construct a somewhat distinctive sound for each player’s station.
Each player chooses:
3 drums (skin heads) of different sizes, that may be struck in rapid succession, as a set. Seek a diversity of sounds across the four sets. If there is an overlap of instruments across sets, tune similar instruments differently. When possible, at least one of the low drums should be large - something between a floor tom and a large bass drum.
2 cardboard boxes of different sizes, thickness and resulting timbres. Experiment with open or closed boxes to “tune” the sound.
1 cymbal, tam or gong.
1 large piece of heavy paper, capable to making a substantial sound when shaken or torn.
Each player will construct their own 7-sound found object instrument, seeking a very wide variety of timbres and resonance possibilities across the instrument and positioned approximately low to high like a keyboard. Specific, easily identified pitches should be avoided. Objects should all allow some dynamic range. The four instruments ideally should overlap sounds very little. When the same objects are used in more than one instrument, take care that they sound somewhat different and occupy different positions low to high.
Where not specified, stick/mallet choices are up to each player and should be calibrated to the dynamics and character of each moment.
Player 1 uses two small river stones in mvt. IV.
Player 2 has 2 woodblocks
Player 2 also uses an empty plastic water bottle in mvt. III. This should be an 8 oz. plastic-reducing bottle so that it is very thin and make a crackling noises when struck or crushed.
There is also a centrally placed marimba (to low A)
Drums
Alternative Facts
Eric Chasalow
Drums
Drums
Drums
Percussion 1 Percussion 2 Percussion 3 Percussion 4
mallet
Ponderous Drums scrape mallet ot superball to create a low glissando
hold your position expressionless and still as possible
VII.
The sun is setting. It's getting colder and colder - much too cold. The light is fading. There is nowhere to flee so, when we try, we are forced to move in idiotic circles.
Stand apart in the four corners of a square enclosing the marimba at a distance. Each player in turn walks to the marimba to play while the previous player is still taking their turn at the marimba. One by one, each moves off the treble end of the instrument and walks to the edge of the performance space or, if possible, off stage. While the affect should remain quiet, and players should not interact with one another, there should be a subtle sense that each player, in turn, is being displaced and forced out. q = 60 paper A disintegrating ritual procession - focused but futile
short rattling sound
Percussion 1 Percussion 2 Percussion 3
Percussion 4
Mrb.
March 1, 2023 Newtonville, MA