RNY 1155 – David Lang – The Public Domain

david lang

the public domain for 1000 or more voices

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RNY 1155 Warning : Unauthorized reproduction of this publication is prohibited by Federal law, and subject to criminal prosecution.

the public domain - for 1000 or more voices words and music by david lang

note, with instructions

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In 2014 I wrote a piece for 1000 voices, called crowd out. It was mostly 1000 people yelling, but it had some speaking, singing, whispering, clapping and movement in it, and it focused on the idea that we lose something as individuals when we enter inside a crowd. I enjoyed making the piece so much that I decided to make another piece for 1000 voices, this time with much more singing, this time focusing on the opposite aspect of what makes a crowd - the things that we all share with each other, things we all have, that we all do, that we all need, and need from each other. Because my interest was to identify what might be common to us all I decided to call it the public domain.

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In search of a wide range of ideas about what we think we all might share, I crowd-sourced the texts, as I had also done in crowd out. All the texts are internet search engine autocompletions of the sentence “One thing we all have is our….” which gave me a list of sometimes very personal statements, from people all around the world. I didn’t use all of them. I took out those that referred to specific people, that insulted or praised a person or group, that said anything - good or bad – about a particular religion or nationality or gender, that endorsed or disparaged a particular commercial product or activity, that were pornographic. My interest was to make a text that would seem in some way universal, a list of attributes we might all agree on, that could feel in some way universal.

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the public domain is designed for the entire community we live in so it doesn’t require music professionals, although they are welcome. Having sung in any kind of choir is a great background for this piece. Performers should have some familiarity with reading music – that will really help – but it is definitely possible to do this with very little experience. When the performers sing, speak or shout it should be in everyday, non-operatic, non-theatrical voices.

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There are three different kinds of groupings in the public domain – every participant is a member of a crowd of about 20 to 50 people, called a group; a larger crowd of about 200 people, called a strand; and the largest crowd, of 1000 or more, made up of all the participants. There should be 5 strands, each made up of several groups. It isn’t necessary that all the groups be the same size, or that each strand has the same number of groups.

The strands are named with colors: BLUE, GREEN, ORANGE, RED, YELLOW. In the score the order of entry is always alphabetical – B,G,O,R,Y – but this is a shorthand for me and if for dramatic or spatial or musical reasons the order wants to be changed at a given moment or throughout please feel free to do so. (I chose to divide the ensemble into five strands because there are five boroughs in New York City, where the public domain was premiered: Bronx, Brooklyn, Manhattan, Queens and Staten Island.)

Each group of 20 to 50 people has a group leader, who will need to be a little more musically experienced, and who will need to rehearse a little more, and there should be a lead group in each strand, whose leader, the strand leader, watches for the conductor’s cues to move from section to section. There is one central conductor who cues the

changes from section to section, and who conducts the entire ensemble in two or three places. The principal way that information flows is from the conductor to the strand leaders to the group leaders to the individuals. Almost all of the musical direction given to individuals during the performance will come from their group leaders.

The group leaders communicate with their groups with megaphones. The megaphones should be the cone-type, unpowered megaphones – the type that is used by coxswains in rowing, and not the electric, nasal, artificially amplified ones. Places where the megaphones are to be used are clearly marked. It may be helpful for group leaders to have pitch pipes.

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Group leaders may sing notes or yell instructions or reminders or cues to their groups, in order to coordinate them as the piece goes on. Since most of the performers are not expected to be trained musicians it could be reassuring to have a group leader introduce new pitches or yell “EVERYONE LOOK AT ME FOR THE CUE” or “ON TO PART 4.

READY? GO!” One wouldn’t want to do that in an orchestra piece but in the public domain it might be very useful.

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the public domain cannot help but be a theatrical experience – 1000 or more people take up a lot of space, and their placement and their movements are both an aesthetic opportunity and a logistical nightmare. I recommend strongly that an experienced theatrical director be involved in every performance.

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Performers and audience should be indistinguishable from each other. I don’t want the audience (should there be one) to feel separated from the performers, in location, dress, ethnicity, ability, etc; rather, the performers and audience should be mixed together, in all ways, so that non-performers might feel that they share the communal space with the performers. It may even be possible and even desirable to encourage audience members to join in at certain moments.

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It should be noted that the score is written specifically for “1000 or more” people. How many more is a good question. I can easily imagine this piece scaled up to include tens of thousands, or even hundreds of thousands of people. If so, please feel free to add more colors and internal cues at will.

note about the performance materials: the performance materials come with two scores – a full score with fourteen pages of music, and another score on only one page, double sided. Each performer will need to learn the piece from the full score, which has all the instructions, but once the piece is learned the one page score may be less cumbersome in performance. The one page score does not have all the instructions on it; rather, it is intended as more of a mnemonic device, to remind the singers of what they already have learned how to do. No one is required to perform from the one page score, but it is my hope that, by making a smaller score that is easier for the singers to handle, it gives more options to the theatrical director for the creation of movement and gesture.

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our design our need our capacity to choose how we will view the world around us our time – there is no hurry our free will and the power to choose our strong opinion our love of music our past our struggle to figure out our lives our love of music our favorite sandwich our own experience our love of the sport our ego our belief and work our opinions and get ready for many more our voice and our power our passion our love of music our skin our free will our time our choice our inner wisdom our responsibility our compassion our ability to grow our social influence our own unique voice our love our being part of the weather our unlimited capacity our 24 hours in a day our health our voice our determination our perfect imperfections our choice our pain our music our philosophical framework our civil liberties and our rights our time our ability to determine our own our time our complete respect our legacy of music our time – our waking hours our power to choose our voice our time, until it stops our shoes to walk in our knowledge our key our free will

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the public domain words by david lang

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the public domain, words and music by david lang

part 1 – our design – MURMURING, GENTLE. It should feel as if the performance is emerging from the general buzz of the audience. This opening may take a very long time.

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1. ALL 5 STRANDS: each person independently, speak in a whisper at first and gradually move to a very quiet normal voice, at a normal pace, repeating sentences in order, with varying, unpredictable lengths of silence between each sentence.

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our free will and the power to choose

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our love of music our past our stuggle to figure out our lives

2. EACH GROUP SEPARATELY: after several minutes conductor signals group leaders to introduce the note D with their pitch-pipes. Each person keeps murmuring independently, intoning quietly on the D. BLUE groups enter first, then BLUE and GREEN, then BLUE, GREEN and ORANGE, then BLUE, GREEN, ORANGE and RED, then BLUE, GREEN, ORANGE, RED and YELLOW.

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3. EACH GROUP SEPARATELY: conductor signals group leaders to introduce the note A with their pitch-pipes. When individual performers hear new notes introduced by their group leader they should gently change the pitch of their intoning to the new note. First BLUE, then BLUE and GREEN, then BLUE, GREEN and ORANGE, then BLUE, GREEN, ORANGE and RED, then all 5.

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4. EACH GROUP SEPARATELY: conductor signals group leaders to introduce the note C (above the A) with their pitch-pipes. First BLUE, then BLUE and GREEN, then BLUE, GREEN and ORANGE, then BLUE, GREEN, ORANGE and RED, then all 5.

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5. EACH GROUP TOGETHER: conductor signals group leaders to cycle the notes D, A and C with their pitch-pipes, in any order. Group leaders should vary unpredictably the amount of time spent on each pitch.

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6. EACH GROUP TOGETHER: after several minutes conductor signals group leaders to lead their groups in crescendi and decrescendi, each group together following its leader, independent of the other groups.

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7. EACH GROUP TOGETHER: conductor signals group leaders to cycle only the notes A and C, leaving out the D, with their pitch-pipes, in any order. The group leaders continue their independent crescendi and decrescendi.

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part 2: our love of music - BECOMING MORE MELODIC EACH STRAND SEPARATELY: conductor signals group leaders to sing the following melodies, in the order given, repeating as long as directed. Each group should sing the melodies together, gently. Group leaders may vary the tempo and the length of rests between melodies, and should not link up or coordinate with the singing of neighboring groups. Group leaders whose groups are still on part 1 continue crescendi and decrescendi, until conductor cues your strand to move on to part 2. First BLUE enters, then BLUE and GREEN, then BLUE, GREEN and ORANGE, then BLUE, GREEN, ORANGE and RED, then all 5. sing in any octave

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part 3: our passion, call and response - GETTING STRONGER EACH STRAND SEPARATELY: conductor signals group leaders to sing the following phrases, in the order given, repeating as long as directed. Each group should sing the melodies together, becoming stronger. Each group leader begins by speaking the phrase into the megaphone, then conducting the singers in response. Group leaders may vary the tempo and the length of rests between phrases, and should not link up or coordinate with the singing of neighboring groups.

First BLUE enters, then BLUE and GREEN, then BLUE, GREEN and ORANGE, then BLUE, GREEN, ORANGE and RED, then all 5.

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part 4: our passion, united - POWERFUL AND STRONG ALL TOGETHER: there can be some overlap between parts 3 and 4, but as soon as singers notice that part 4 has started they should join in. The conductor may vary the tempo and length of rests between entrances.

Conductor repeats ad lib, until cuing strands to move on to part 5, in the usual order.

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part 5: our passion, extended - EDGY AND UNSTABLE EACH STRAND SEPARATELY: conductor signals group leaders to sing the following phrases, in the order given, repeating as long as directed. Each phrase begins with a strong accent on the word 'our' followed by slight pause, and then the rest of the phrase.

Group leaders cue the accented 'our' but all singers sing the rest of the phrase independently.

Group leaders should vary the space between phrases, and should not link up or coordinate with the singing of neighboring groups. First BLUE enters, then BLUE and GREEN, then BLUE, GREEN and ORANGE, then BLUE, GREEN, ORANGE and RED, then all 5.

ALL SINGERS TOGETHER: after all groups have started part 5 the conductor cues all singers, together, to change their phrasing, so that the word 'our' remains strong and accented but the rest of each phrase is mouthed silently. Group leaders should continue to vary the space between phrases.

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part 6: our compassion, call and response - STRONG AND ERRATIC EACH STRAND SEPARATELY: conductor signals group leaders to sing the following phrases, in the order given, repeating as long as directed. Each group leader sings each phrase through his or her megaphone and the group responds by clapping the rhythm that was just sung. Group leaders should make the sung rhythms unpredictable, varying the tempo and the length of rests between phrases, and should not link up or coordinate with the singing of neighboring groups. First BLUE enters, then BLUE and GREEN, then BLUE, GREEN and ORANGE, then BLUE, GREEN, ORANGE and RED, then all 5. (group leaders only)

(singers clap response)

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RNY 1155

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part 7: our compassion, flowing - GENTLE AND MELODIC EACH STRAND SEPARATELY: conductor signals group leaders to sing the following phrases, in the order given, repeating as long as directed. Each group should sing the melodies together.

Group leaders may wildly vary the tempo and the length of rests between phrases, and should not link up or coordinate with the singing of neighboring groups. First BLUE enters, then BLUE and GREEN, then BLUE, GREEN and ORANGE, then BLUE, GREEN, ORANGE and RED, then all 5. sing in any octave

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RNY 1155

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8

part 8: our choice, call and response.1 - GETTING STRONGER EACH STRAND SEPARATELY: conductor signals group leaders to sing the following phrases, in any order, repeating as long as directed. Each group leader begins by singing the phrase into the megaphone, then conducting the singers in response, who repeat it together. Group leaders may vary the tempo and the length of rests between phrases, and should not link up or coordinate with the singing of neighboring groups. First BLUE enters, then BLUE and GREEN, then BLUE, GREEN and ORANGE, then BLUE, GREEN, ORANGE and RED, then all 5.

When all 5 stands have entered conductor signals for slowly building, but very large crescendo.

sing in any octave

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RNY 1155

9

part 9: our choice, call and response.2 – BECOMING OVERPOWERING

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EACH STRAND SEPARATELY: conductor signals group leaders to speak the following phrases, in any order, repeating as long as directed. Each group leader begins by speaking the phrase into the megaphone, then cuing the singers to speak, together, in response. Group leaders and their groups begin a gradual crescendo, moving from speaking to shouting. Group leaders may vary wildly the volume, the tempo and the length of rests between phrases, and should not link up or coordinate with the singing of neighboring groups. First BLUE enters, then BLUE and GREEN, then BLUE, GREEN and ORANGE, then BLUE, GREEN, ORANGE and RED, then all 5.

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our complete respect our legacy of music our time – our waking hours

RNY 1155

10

part 10: our power to choose - GENTLE AND COMMITTED FOR THE FIRST FIRST TIME, TIME, ALL ALL SINGERS SINGERS BECOME BECOME DIVIDED DIVIDED BY

BY TH THEIR TYPES FOR THE EIRVOICE VOICE TYPES

ALL ALTOS FROM ALL STRANDS: Conductor signals all altos to enter, singing together, ALL ALTOS FROM STRANDS: signals all their altos to enter, as a choir, in time with theALL conductor.

All other Conductor singers continue following group leaderssinging togeth as a call choir, time with the in the and in response of part 9. conductor. All other singers continue following their group le

in the call and response of part 9.

Sections may be repeated as needed.

Sections may be repeated as needed. q = 80

altos

7

sing in the octave indicated

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««úÇ . ««ˆ« ««úÇ «« «« . ÏÈÈÈ úÈÈÈ . búÈÈÈ . bú È bÏ È Ç ú Ç ú È È ==================================== È l& l l l l l l È {” our l l our l po - wer l po - wer l l our l po - wer ” l l « Ó l « «« Ó l « « Ó l Ó l Ó. ” ««ˆ« Ó ‰ «« l ««ˆ« Ó « « ˆ « « ˆ ==================================== l & ˆ« l b_«ˆ«ˆ l ˆ« «ˆ l _«ˆ«ˆ _««ˆˆ l l {” ˆ«ĵ l ˆ« divisi

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RNY 1155

to

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39

«« œ» «« œ» úÈ» . È ú . » œ È ú . Œ bú È Œ « ˆ » » » » ˆ« »» l úÈ»» . soprano 1 l================================ » l » l »» & “{ l » l » » l l ou r po wer our po wer ou r po l “ l l l l l l l l “ « l l l l « l « l « l «« « « « . « « « « bœ » « « bú È « l úÇ . l »» l »» úÇ l ˆ« l úÇ . l ˆ« l soprano 2 l================================ úÇ úÇ & “ { úÇ . l “ our l our l po - wer l our l po - wer l l po - wer l l “ l l l l l l l l “ « l Ó l Ó. l « «« Ó l « l « «« Ó l ‰ «« l ««ú« . altos ================================ « « ĵ ˆ« l úÇ . l & “ { b_ú««ú .. l l l _«ˆ«ˆ _««ˆˆ l b_««úú .. l _«ˆ«ˆ _««ˆˆ l l “ our l l l po -wer l our l po -wer l to l choose l “ « l l « l l l « l l ««j « « » œ » œ œ œ . . » » « . ú « » « ú » ˆ « ú ‰ «« l «« l Ó “ l Ó. l »»œ »»»œ Ó l bú«Ç . l »œ» »»»œ Ó l tenor / bass ll================================ ? “ { bú«Ç . l ˆ« l «úÇ . l l »» » l l »» » l po -wer

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RNY 1155

choose

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12

part 11: our voice - MURMURING, AND BECOMING VERY STRONG ALL TOGETHER: All singers intone on the pitches indicated, using the texts below, in any order. Singers should maintain their rhythmic and text independence from each other, breathing and articulating and recycling text at will. Conductor indicates when to move from one chord to the next, and may vary wildly the lengths of chords at will. Singers should make sure to maintain their independence when signaled to change chords - if in the middle of a phrase singers may delay changing to their new notes until the old phrase is completely sung.

Group leaders may use their pitch-pipes liberally to help singers stay on their notes, as needed.

For the first chord, group leaders may also bring in the singers individually, to build up and tune the chord.

Conductor cues a crescendo that builds slowly and strongly. Begin singing quietly become very, very loud.

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sing these texts, in any order or combination:

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sing at octave indicated

2

3

10

11

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1

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our voice our time, until it stops our shoes to walk in our knowledge our key our free will

4

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6

7

8

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14

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16

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U ww w l============== & l w =” b _ w n _ w ” l l _w _w ll ? ll ============== =”” ƒ 17

18

singers should stay loud until their groups are instructed to move on to part 12

RNY 1155

13

part 12: our design, reprise - EVAPORATING EACH STRAND SEPARATELY: conductor signals groups to enter and conducts. Singers all sing together, in the same rhythm. First BLUE enters, then BLUE and GREEN, then BLUE, GREEN and ORANGE, then BLUE, GREEN, ORANGE and RED, then all 5.

After all groups are singing part 12 conductor signals groups to change, from singing the text to speaking the text. Individual singers begin together, with the cuing of the conductor, but are not to speak in rhythm.

They should speak naturally, in a natural voice, with a natural rhythm, getting quieter with each repetition.

First BLUE changes, then BLUE and GREEN, then BLUE, GREEN and ORANGE, then BLUE, GREEN, ORANGE and RED, then all 5.

When all singers are speaking the text, quietly, the piece may end.

q = 72

sing at the octave indicated

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RNY 1155

14