James Black RAUS (2017) Four pieces for 14 players with soloist Dur. 16′
for the Athelas Sinfonietta and KLANG festival, 2017
SCORE
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James Black RAUS (2017) Four pieces for 14 players with soloist Dur. 16′
I - Caribou Murder (Tempo di folksong) II - Integrated National Mechanical Argument (Meccanico, q = 104) III - Kitchen Floor (Senza misura - Largo, q = 52) IV - Horse (Crude, q = 126) Note on solo part The piece is written with the composer in mind as the soloist. Therefore the notation is devised with the soloist in mind. In the first and third movements, the soloist should sing. This should be amplified. The the second and fourth movements, the soloist performs on stylophone and casio keyboard. These should also be amplified, but should come out of a different set of speakers to the vocals (see disposition). Note on percussion The percussion part is playable by one player - however, for practical reasons it is highly desirable to separate the instruments across two players, with the first player taking bass drum and mid-tom, and the second player taking kick drum and woodblocks. This avoids complicated polyrhythms in the fourth movement that would be highly complex for one player only.
PROCEDURE I - Caribou Murder (tempo di folksong) The movement starts with the soloist singing the English folk song “Seventeen come Sunday”. The ensemble (minus percussion and piano) join in singing in the chorus. From the third verse, the piano accompanies the song with credit cards drawn along the lowest strings, starting away from the pianist and drawing the cards towards the pianist. This notation is shown graphically, and is not intended to be precise. However, at the start of this section the player should play on the notated strings. II - Integrated National Mechanical Argument (Meccanico, q = 104) The soloist plays on casio keyboard and stylophone. These are notated graphically. The ensemble (apart from the piano and percussion) are vocalising in rhythm. The pronunciation should be long and drawn out ‘ah’s and ‘oh’s. A horizontal arrow indicates a gradual change in vowel sound, starting the change from ‘ah’ to ‘oh’ (or vice versa) at the start of the arrow and completing the change at the end of the arrow. The overall feel should be similar to a pronunciation guide for someone learning a language. The effect intended is similar to the track ‘Explanation Mark’ by the band The Books from their album The Lemon of Pink (a recording can be found on youtube or spotify). The composer will provide exact pronunciation guides on request. III - Kitchen Floor (Largo, q = 52) The symbols in the soloist part denote a gesture and a vocalisation performed simultaneously. The gestures and vocalisations are tied to each other (so that every recurrence of a certain gesture is accompanied by the same vocalisation). In the section marked “Cadenza”, the soloist should perform the gestures without the accompanying vocalisations (i.e. in complete silence). This section should last about a minute. Players 1, 2, and 3 all double on soprano recorder. The square notation indicates the recorders should be held slightly away from the mouth so that the sound cracks and frequently overblows at the octave. IV - Horse (Crude, q = 126) The tempo in this section (from the entrance of the kick drum at the end of the previous movement) must be precisely 126. This is so that when the soloist plays with the pre-loaded rhythms on the casio, the tempi will line up. It is advisable for the percussion to use a (silent!) metronome to check the tempo. For the strings, triangle noteheads with lines (opposite) indicate an extremely high double stop with a rapid downward glissando immediately following. For the strings, thick black lines over the note (opposite) indicate a scratch tone - very heavy bow pressure on the lowest string to create an unpitched sound. The brass and double reeds should flutter tongue the entirety of the movement.
INSTRUMENTATION Player 1 - Piccolo (doubling soprano recorder, vocals) Player 2 - Cor Anglais (doubling soprano recorder, vocals) Player 3 - Clarinet in Eb (doubling soprano recorder, vocals) Player 4 - Bassoon (doubling contrabassoon) Player 5 - Horn in F (doubling vocals) Player 6 - Trumpet in C (doubling vocals) Player 7 - Trombone (doubling vocals) Player 8 - Violin I (doubling vocals) Player 9 - Violin II (doubling vocals) Player 10 - Viola (doubling vocals) Player 11 - Cello (doubling vocals) Player 12 - Double Bass (doubling vocals) Soloist - vocals, stylophone, casio keyboard (see below) Percussion (bass drum, mid-tom, kick drum, 2x woodblocks) (see below) Piano NB. All instruments are written in their relevant transpositions
Disposition The ensemble should be positioned in the following manner:
This layout is intended to de-emphasise the ‘sinfonietta’ aspect of the piece and focus instead on having a set of individual players. This is also reflected in the score where the 12 instrumentalists (everyone apart from percussion, piano, and soloist) are presented as a block, rather than splitting up the strings and winds with the piano and percussion in the middle, as in an orchestral score.