GREGORY ROWLAND EVANS
Birdless, Cloudless, Colourless for alto saxophone 2021
SCORE
FOREWORD When at last she went away he felt that something had gone out from him, something he could not spare, but still less could grudge, something of the desire to live, something of the unreasonable tenacity with which he shrank from dissolution. So each evening, in contemplation and absorption of this woman, he lost a part of his essential animality: so that the water rose, terrifying him. Still he fought on all day, hopelessly, mechanically, only relaxing with twilight, to listen for her coming to loosen yet another stone in the clumsy dam set up and sustained by him, frightened and corruptible. Until at last, for the first time, he was unconditioned by the Satanic dimensional Trinity, he was released, achieved, the blue flower, Vega, GOD.... After a timeless parenthesis he found himself alone in his room, spent with ecstasy, torn by the bitter loathing of that which he had condemned to the humanity of silence. Thus each night he died and was God, each night revived and was torn, torn and battered with increasing grievousness, so that he hungered to be irretrievably engulfed in the light of eternity, one with the birdless cloudless colourless skies, in infinite fulfillment.Then it happened. While the woman was contemplating the face that she had overlaid with death, she was swept aside by a great storm of sound, shaking the very house with its prolonged, triumphant vehemence, climbing in a dizzy, bubbling scale, until, dispersed, it fused into the breath of the forest andthe throbbing cry of the sea.They found her caressing his wild dead hair. (Assumption – Samuel Beckett)
At last I find in my confused soul, Dark with the dark flame of the cypresses, The certitude that I cannot be whole, Consummate, finally achieved, unless — I be consumed and fused in the white heat Of her sad finite essence, so that none Shall sever us who are at last complete Eternally, irrevocably one, — One with the birdless, cloudless, colourless skies, One with the bright purity of the fire Of which we are and for which we must die A rapturous strange death and be entire, — Like syzygetic stars, supernly bright, Conjoined in One and in the Infinite! (At Last I Find – Samuel Beckett)
PERFORMANCE NOTES Teeth On Reed : During passages where the teeth are to be placed on the reed, a glissando is used to indicate approximate pitch contours. Alternate Timbres : Rhythmicized timbre alterations are notated as a circled number above a note (such as 1 , 2 , or 3 ), where higher numbers refer to a greater deviation in timbre and pitch. Accidentals : Accidentals apply only to the pitch which they immediately precede, but persist through ties.
Birdless, Cloudless, Colourless was composed for and premiered on June 25, 2021 by Stephen F. Tamas as part of the SICPP Iditarod.
duration: c. 7’
to Stephen F. Tamas .
Birdless, Cloudless, Colourless .
or, bats. in Ohio for alto saxophone
Gregory Rowland Evans (*1995) = 108 tone
teeth on reed
Alto Saxophone
4444
teeth on reed
air
mp
565 6
fp
5
normale
33 44
444 4
3:2
pp
mp
= 60
c.2'
9
normale
77 88
66 88
55 88
sf
sf
sf
= 40 teeth on reed
c.3'
3 44
4 44
2 44
4 44
mf
fff
13
normale
444 4
4242 mf
11 44
99 88
fff
ff
p
17
888 8
pp
= 84
8 8 88
c.5'
6 446
7:8
p
5
1
4
3
2 6 7 8 7
9
5:3
8
7
77 44
pp
20 4747
1
Birdless - GR Evans
2
24:14
3
4
5
3
2
4
40:28
3
2
1
24:14
2
55 44 1
21 2 3
4545 1
4848
4
5
3:2
6
7
8
8
9
7
6
3:2
8:5
22 5
1
4848
6
4
7
3
2
7
8
9
8787
3
1
3:2
5:4
3 434
9:7
f
24 2
4343 4747 1
1 2
1 2 1 2 1 2 1 2
8 5
6
1
7
2
3
4
3
1
2
6 886
2
5:4 12:7
5:3
p
26
868
f
5 88
29
4 4 44 88 1
2
4
3
3
1
2
4
2 3
5:4
1
4
3:2
ff
= 40
8448
p
44 88
33 88
p
55 88
pp
mp
8:5
66 88
p
33
6 6 88
mp
7887
p
pp
9:7
36
p9:8
mp
8989
mp
= 120
8989
p
2
8 8 88
mp
5
66 44
4
2
2 3 2 1 5 2 3 1
3
5:4
p
3:2
77 44
5:3
Birdless - GR Evans
38 4747
9
44 44
7
5
4
6
3
2
1
9
3 2
8
44
5:4
3:2
12:7
39
teeth on reed
9
normale
4444
55 44
pp
2
4
3
5
4
6
5
7
6
8
1
3:2
3:2
88 44
8:5
mp
41 4848
1
2
2 2
1
2
2
1
1
1
444 4
3:2
5:4
42
1
2
teeth on reed
3 4444 8
2
4 3 6 4 5 7 6 7
1
3:2
5:4
3:2
c.2'
33 22
444 4
33 44
ff
46
= 75
normale
99 88
2323
5:4
mf
8:9
ff
7 887
48
787
686
9:7
585
484
22 44
normale
52
teeth on reed
2442 f
Birdless - GR Evans
5 858
ff
p
8686
5:3
pp
p
7 7 88
pp
p
10:7
pp
3
56
= 90
2 8 44
1
c.5'
3
5
4
3
4
1
2
3
2
4
5:4 3:2
mf
7 44
f
58
77
4747
1
2
3
4
7
5
6
7
9
8
9
8
40:28
4646
24:14
mf
mp
59
5
3
4646
6
4
7
8
9
7 2
8
5:4
3:2
5:3
f
2
1
3
1
55 44
2
1
2 1 2 1 2 1 2
1
3:2
mf
5:4
6:5
mf
55 66
f
61
mp
ff
6565
1 6 444 4
3:2
7
5 8 2 6 7 8 3 4
8
3:2
f
5:4
33 44
3:2
1
2
2
3
2 1
3
4
3
2
5:4
mp
mf
3
4
444 4
mf
f
64 444 2
1
3
4
33 44 6 4
3 2 1 2 3 4
3
5:4
5
9
8
7
6
5
3
4
3:2
mf
1 2
2
5:4
f
3
3:2
5:3
mf
4
363
3:2
mf
ff
mp
67 6363
5 747 4
4
3
2 3 4 4 3 2
3:2
mp
ff
f
5
1
2
3:2
5:4
12:7
f
66 44
mf
69 4646 5
mf
4
1
2
3
4 5 4 3 2
1
2
3
5:3
f
55 44 8
mf
7
6
44 66 5
4
3:2
3
2
5:4
8:5
6
4 7
1
8
6
3:2
mp
Birdless - GR Evans
71
= 130
646
3:2
ff
5 66
3:2
mf
5 66
mp
ff
46 6
3:2
p
74 33 44 66 66
4646
3:2
3:2
78
5 665
3:2
686 8
3:2
= 108 teeth on reed
c.6'
8686
4444
ff
p
4444
3 434
4242
82 sub tone
444
242
141
77
16
fff
ppp
normale
87
686
7:6
= 130 teeth on reed p
4545
c.3'
9:10
ff
55 66
normale
444 4
6
teeth on reed p
teeth on reed p
ff
p
ff
3:2
444 4
pp
mp
91
545
ff
444 4 normale
4444
95
p
4343
33 44
446 6
33 44
3:2
pp
ff
p
22 44
teeth on reed p
ff
normale 33 444 66 4
3:2
ff
p
33 44
ff
22 44
pp
Birdless - GR Evans
5
100
= 120 p
ff
p
424
x5
ff
c.2'
1 44
4 5 9 6 2 4 5 6
8
7 44
2
3
1
7
8
3
1 9 7
6 44
p
104 4646
8 6 2
4
5 3 1 9
7
8 6 2
1
4 5 3
9 7
25:24
88 44
105 4848
106
8 6
2
4 5 3
1 9 7
8
6 2 4 5
3
1 9 7
8 6 2
4
5 3
17:16
ritardando
4545
7 8 6 2 4 5 3 9 7 8 6 2 4 1 9
1
23:20
7 474
107
= 45
4747
9 7 8 6 2 4 5 3 9 7 8 6 2 4 5 5 3
1
1
15:14
77 88
fff
109
66 88
ff
= 30
8686 6
55 44
5 885
66 88
c.2'
77 88 Birdless - GR Evans
113
= 113
66
7887
343
88
fff
444
ff
116 4444
55 44
33 44
p
118
4343
44 44
33 44
44 44
p
121 4444
33 44
444 4
22 44
normale
124 teeth on reed
242
pp
444
343
444
p
127 teeth on reed
4444
11 44
pp
Birdless - GR Evans
33 44
11 44
\hspace #0.75 ............ Iowa City, Ia. May 2021
7
Other scores from Gregory Rowland Evans include:
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CHAMBER
LARGE ENSEMBLE
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Hamonshū (string quartet) 2018-20
Metamorphoses (orchestra) 2018
Simbelmynë (piano alone) 2019-20
Adumbration (string quartet) 2020
GUERRERO (21 saxophones) 2018
Chalk Line (solo flute) 2020
Zahrat Alearear (bass flute, guitar) 2021
Tourbillon (string ensemble) 2019-20
redbud blossom, blueberry bee (cello) 2020
©05-2021
Scores available for purchase at www.gregoryrowlandevans.com
$10