© 2021 Faulkenberry Compositions
Instrumentation Percussion Spades (♠) brake drum, cowbell, agogo bells, ride cymbal, splash cymbal Percussion Clubs (♣) bass drum, floor and mid toms, snare drum, temple blocks Percussion Hearts (♥) marimba Percussion Diamonds ( triangle, glockenspiel, vibraphone Dealer (needs standard 52 Suggested Layout The percussionists should be arranged from left to right in the following order (from the audience’s perspective): Spades, Clubs, Hearts, Diamonds. The dealer should stand in front of the group as would a Eachconductor.percussionist should have trap that is both clearly visible to the player and easily accessible by the dealer. The trap. (If traps are not available, a music stand with its surface turned horizontally would also suffice.) D e a l e r Spades Diamonds( ♦) Trap Trap Trap Trap A u d i e n c e Stage
Instructions for Dealer Begin the piece by visibly shuffling the deck for the audience. Then, draw the first card. “Deal” that card to the player associated with the suit on the card, adding it to that player’s “hand” by placing it on their trap. Be sure to place it on the leftmost side (from your perspective) of the stand/trap. For example, if the first card drawn is the Jack of Clubs (J♣), the Percussion Clubs player’s trap will look as follows from your perspective: J♣ J Continue drawing and dealing cards at approximately 8 10 second intervals. Place each subsequent card in a player’s “hand” to the right of their existing cards. For example, if the next two Clubs drawn are the Four of Clubs ( ), the Percussion Clubs player’s trap will look as follows from your perspective: Continue dealing cards until the entire deck has been dealt. Once this occurs, allow the percussionists to continue playing for another 10 off to conclude the piece.
Your part consists of thirteen musical cells, one corresponding to each of the thirteen cards of your suit (A, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, J, Q, K). It is strongly recommended you memorize these cells so that you do not need to refer to the notated materials during performance. Further, it is recommended you develop a strong visual auditory association between each playing card and its corresponding musical cell. In effect, you should be able to “read” the playing card as fluently as you would read standard Throughoutnotation. the piece, the dealer will gradually add cards to your “hand” by placing them on your trap, beginning from the right side and moving left (from your perspective) For example, if you are the Percussion Clubs player and the first three Clubs drawn were the Jack of Clubs (J♣), then the Four of Clubs (4♣), then the Nine of Clubs (9 ) would look as follows from your perspective: Throughout the entire piece, hand, reading from left to right. (I repeat.) The dynamic at which you play depend on the number of cards in your hand; detailed instruction Generally, as your hand gets larger, the dynamic will increase and the . As a result, the piece will grow more Note that in the These refer to the order in which the cards are is the second, et cetera), not the number on the card. ordinal numbers are printed in a sans serif font to distinguish them from card numbers. Unlike the musical cells themselves, which should be memorized, the Pacing Guide may be used in performance (with each performer having a copy). However, you may find it more convenient to memorize this as well so that fewer music stands are required. ♣ Card
Instructions for Percussionists
Program Note
There are exactly 52 factorial (52! = 52 × 51 × 50 × × 2 × 1) unique shuffles of a standard deck of cards. That is an unfathomably large number so large that, every time you shuffle a deck, you can virtually be certain that ordering of cards has never existed before and will never exist again. A simple deck of cards is almost infinitely unpredictable. This piece renders that unpredictability in sound. A “dealer” will continuously deal cards from a randomly shuffled deck to the players, who will play musical gestures corresponding to the cards they are dealt. (Each card’s number is represented by the number of notes in the gesture, and the card’s suit is represented by the instrument on which the gesture is played: metallic clangs for spades, aggressive strikes for clubs, warm tones for hearts, and crystalline timbres for diamonds.) As more and more cards are dealt the piece will become ever more cacophonous. By its conclusion, it will be sheer chaos. Because the progression of the piece is entirely determined by the order of the cards, every new shuffle yields a new piece. So, in truth, this is not so much a piece as it is a set of 52 ossible pieces.
Which one you wind up hearing is
Spades(♠) (Allnotevaluesrelativetoq=ca.120) / brakedrum NotationKey cowbell agogobells ridecymbal ridecymbal (onbell) splashcymbal (brakedrum,cowbell,agogobells,ridecymbal,splashcymbal) / A♠ 2♠ > / 7♠ 10♠ 53 / J♠ 5 œ œ œ œ ¿ ‚ ¿ œ ¿ ¿ œ œ œ œ œ œ ‚¿¿¿‚‚ ¿j¿ ¿j¿ ¿j¿ ¿j¿ ‚j‚ œœ œ œœœ ¿ ¿ œ œ ¿ ¿ œ œ œ
Clubs(♣) (Allnotevaluesrelativetoq=ca.120) / bassdrum NotationKey oortom midtom snaredrum snaredrum (onrim) templeblocks (bassdrum, oorandmidtoms,snaredrum,templeblocks) / A♣ 2♣ / 7♣ 10♣ 3 5 / J♣ 5 œ œ œ œ ¿ 1 1 1 1 1 œ œ œ 1 1 1 1 1 œ¿¿¿œœ¿ œjœ œjœ œjœ œjœ œjœ 1 1 æ æ 1 1 1 1 æ æ 1 œ 1 1 1 1 1 œœœ
{ { { { Hearts(♥) (Allnotevaluesrelativetoq=ca.120) (marimba) & A♥ 2♥ 3♥ . 4♥ 5♥ ? ord . dead stroke & 6♥ ≈ œ œ ≈ œ#œ bœ ? bœ . > nœ & 9♥ > 3 ‰#œœ n ? . œ #œnœ & Q♥ K♥ 3 5 #œœ n nœ ? #œœ #œœ œ J œ œ œ b œ J # ¿ #œ™ œ œœ nœ bœ nœ œ bœ œj#œ #œj# nœœœ œœ b œ#œœœ nœœ b œ ‰ bœj œ œ œ nœ œ #œ#œ œ
Diamonds(♦) (Allnotevaluesrelativetoq=ca.120) ° (triangle,glockenspiel,vibraphone) / Tri. A♦ & Glock. 2♦ / Tri 3♦ ++ + & Glock. 4♦ / Tri 5♦ . & o +3 & Glock 6♦ . & Vib 9♦ ++o+ & ++o 3 nœ #œœ n & Vib Q♦ 5 œnœ 1 1 1œ bœ 1 J œ œ bœ œ J œ œ œ œ œ ≈ œ œbœ n ≈ œ#œ bœnœj ‰ #œ™ 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 œœœ œœ b n bœ œ œ œ œ #œœ n nœ
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