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Liza Lim

Extinction Events and Dawn Chorus

For Twelve Musicians

Work commissioned for Klangforum Wien by Wittenertage für Neue Kammermusik and with the support of the APRA AMCOS Art Music Fund (Australia)

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Premiere performances:

29 April 2018, Klangforum Wien with Sophie Schaßeitner (violin solo), conducted by Peter Rundel, at Wittenertage für neue Kammermusik

Also 7 May 2018, Mozart Saal, Wiener Konzerthaus, Vienna

Dedicated to Ensemble Klangforum Wien

Duration: c. 38 minutes

Score is in C

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Work is in 5 sections

IAnthropogenic debris12’Page 1

IIRetrograde inversion7’ Page 51

IIIAutocorrect 4’+Page 76

IVTransmission 3’ Page 95

VDawn Chorus 11’ Page 98

Instrumentation

Flute (also Piccolo)

Oboe

Clarinet in Bb (also Bass Clarinet in Bb)

Bassoon (also Contrabassoon) Contrabassoon (or Contraforte) needs low A and a home-made extension to play a low F0

Horn

Trumpet in C

Tenor-bass trombone

Percussion

Piano

Violin (solo part)

Violoncello

Double Bass

CD or aluminum foil pizza plate used as mute (buzz effect)

CD or aluminum foil pizza plate used as mute (buzz effect); straight mute

Straight mute; Harmon mute

Microphone attached at wrist to reinforce sound of low Waldteufel & Whoopee cushions in Movement I; Snare Drum in Movement IV

2 Waldteufels (medium & low)

Medium Spring Drum, one end open or hole at side for wa-wa effect

Bass drum played with heavy brush, surface prepared with sizzle

2 China Cymbals (small, large) scraped on skin of Bass Drum

Snare Drum; with Waldteufel head

(ie: drum head replaced with skin pierced with string attached to rosined stick)

Rasp and 2 drumsticks also required

Loud Ratchet

2 Whoopee Cushions or noisy bellows

Low Claxon

Vibraphone (with mallets & bow)

2 Ebows

2 Timpani mallets also needed for Movement V; plus pedal weight

lowest string is re-tuned

Microphone used to reinforce sound when playing at the back of the hall and in Movement IV (duo with snare drum) plus gigantic sheet (preferably 1m x 2m or larger) of extremely noisy cellophane

lowest string is re-tuned

At the end of Movement V, 4th string is further retuned down an octave

Superball used in Movement V

In Movement V, 4th string is prepared by tying rosined cotton string to it (pulled to create friction effect)

4th string is retuned down to E-ßat in Movement III

Superball used in Movement V

In Movement V, 4th string is prepared by tying rosined cotton string to it (pulled to create friction effect)

Extra percussion needed

Cellophane 1 gigantic sheet (preferably 1m x 2m), extremely noisy

3 Windwands played by Violin, Percussion and Piano in Movement V

12 Kazoos (played by all musicians in Movement V

11 Waldteufels In Movement I, all musicians except Violinist play these; Clarinetist plays High Waldteufel; Double Bassist plays low one; in Movement V, all musicians play these in various combinations

AmpliÞcation

Violin needs dpa/radio microphone for reinforcement when playing at back of hall and in Movement IV

Percussionist has microphone attached at wrist to reinforce sound of low Waldteufel and Whoopee Cushions in Movement I and Snare Drum in Movement IV

Violoncello may also need some light ampliÞcation

Staging Suggestions

Movement I: Violinist plays at the back of the hall in the Þrst part, later moving into position with the ensemble

Movement IV: Table for violin and snare drum with small desk lamp

Movement V:This is potentially played in dim light (‘as if underwater at dawn’)

There is movement of musicians with Waldteufels and Trombone in Movement V

Other Performance Notes

In general, a very malleable and vocal, expressive approach to the music is required with distinct yet ßuid transformations between normal and various altered sounds, e.g. multiphonics as a result of underblown sounds in the wind; half valve and pedal sounds in the brass; string multiphonics at non-harmonic nodes.

Repeats

Various repeat signs are found throughout the piece, in some cases with nested or overlapping repeat brackets. In the case of a repeat that is fully bracketed by another repeated section, the enclosed repeat is played twice on each iteration. In the case of more complex interlaced repeats, each bracket is played twice without being triggered again on any further passes. Dynamics such as crescendi and diminuendi that extend across and beyond a repeated section apply to the entire passage of repeated material, ie: the dynamic does not ‘reset’ on the repeat.

In the Violin (solo part), repeats are numbered to clarify the order in which they occur

The number of repeats given indicate the total number of repetitions

Programme note

Liza Lim: Extinction Events and Dawn Chorus (2017)

Work commissioned for Klangforum Wien by Wittenertage für Neue Kammermusik & with the support of the APRA AMCOS Art Music Fund (Australia).

Dedicated to Ensemble Klangforum Wien

Every aesthetic trace, every footprint of an object, sparkles with absence. Sensual things are elegies to the disappearance of objects.

Timothy Morton, Realist Magic

The fairest order in the world is a heap of random sweepings Herakleitos

Vast conglomerations of plastic trash circulate in Þve gyres in the worldÕs ocean currents and are ground into toxic fragments that sediment on remote islands and within the Þsh we eat. Our every-day rubbish shelters hermit crabs even as acid waters dissolve their former shell habitations. Albatrosses scoop up meals of plastic packaging to feed their chicks that then choke and starve as they ingest this colourful non-food.

Like this plastic waste, all time and its traces are with us still, albeit in residual and pulverised states. I have made a music out of heterogeneous relics of the past Ð a coarse sampling of Ôextinction eventsÕ ranging from the spectral echoes of a creaking 19th century in piano music Ôon an overgrown pathÕ (Jan‡ček), to a faulty transcription of a recording of the last mating call ever heard of the now extinct Kauai OÕo bird, to tracings of a star map that captured the Chinese southern night sky in the 9th century. These time-traces rub against each other in ever-degraded cycles. Fleeting repetitions are pulsations of disappearance and point to the uncertainties of human memory and its collapse in abject forgetting.

There is broken grandeur and there are attempts to sing.

There is the uncanny dawn chorus of the Þsh-life that populates an endangered Australian coral reef.

Time breathes out an improbable hope.

How with this rage shall beauty hold a plea? – Shakespeare, Sonnet No. 65

Liza Lim Extinction Events And Dawn Chorus

For Twelve Musicians I Anthropogenic Debris

Flute (also Piccolo)

Oboe

Clarinet in Bb (also Bass Clarinet in Bb)

Bassoon (also Contrabassoon)

Horn in F

Trumpet in C

Tenor-Bass Trombone

Bass Clarinet in Bb bisbig.

Vln.

All other musicians also spin and catch Waldteufels triggering each other in turn

join in with others spinning ad lib.

Violinist drags very large (2x3m) sheet of noisy cellophane from back of hall to stage making very loud and textured thundersheet sound (cellophane can also be "worn:, e.g. as a train that can be detached)

Cellophane sheet is noisily passed over the top of the musicians to the percussionist

Violin begins when percussion is mfmf

join in with others ad lib.

(catch)

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Pno.

IV Transmission

Suggested staging

Violinist and percussionist sit side by side at a table lit by a small desk lamp with music in front of them.

The Snare Drum is prepared like a large Waldteufel - the usual drumhead is replaced with a drum skin pierced with a string (ﬁshing line) attached to a rosined stick.

Twist rosined stick to create sustained sound

Bow the string with thin rasp to more clearly articulate the phrases

Music Desk Lamp (Violin)

Violin: "rehearse" playing repeated brackets between 3-5 times. On each repeat, vary speed - sometimes very slow, then 'a tempo'. Check "tuning" at any time.

Tuning:

✶ numbers clarify the order of repeated sections (Percussion)

Play violin part conﬁdently without repeats. Recreate phrasing and gestures of violin using a combination of twisted friction eﬀects and bow.

Snare Drum

S. D.

S. D. (with Vln.)

As before, each repeat 3-5 times "rehearse" then play "a tempo".

Also, ad lib. checking/rehearsing boxed areas - insert silences and tuning rituals at these points on occasion.

"Tuning" is :

B C

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S.D. rehearses beginning of violin solo from Bar 3; violinist interrupts to demonstrate how to play the trill note or other part of phrase; S.D. responds by imitating and then continues to play the rest of the phrase

Vln. + S.D. q=50 rubato