Nick Bentz
in drops of dew will I sink down and mingle with the dust for mixed septet and electronics
Shattered Arcana Press
instrumentation
--bass flute
bass clarinet in Bb
--horn in F
--percussion
-vibraphone (with working motor)
-snare drum
-tam-tam (large)
-suspended cymbal (medium)
-basin of water for tam-tam (large)
--harp
-violin or cello bow violin cello electronics (stereo)
required materials
-1 computer running Max 8 with in drops of dew… patch
-1 audio interface (1 in, 2 out or greater) with connection to computer
-2 speakers with XLR cables (see STAGE SETUP)
-method for triggering event stages in patch (either using a MIDI foot pedal operated by the conductor or an offstage electronicist)
For access to patch, visit: https://www.nickbentz.com/in-drops-of-dew-electronics.html and/or contact Nick Bentz (nicholasbentzmusic@hotmail.com – +1 (843) 364-5092)
stage setup
performance notes
--bass flute
X – blow air through the instrument multiphonics:
-all multiphonics are taken from The Techniques of Flute Playing II by Carin Levine and Christina Mitropoulous-Bott
bass clarinet
X – blow air through the instrument
split-tone (aka lip or harmonic glissando) - the player fingers the fundamental pitch, and then drops their jaw to release all pressure, yet still maintaining contact with the mouthpiece as well as airflow –similar to the shape of the mouth for ‘ah’ as in father. This causes a partial to sound above the fundamental pitch. Once this partial is present, the player can move the partial up or down with their tongue positioning, moving the tongue back in the mouth to move the pitch up, and forward to move it down. The uppermost partial on the instrument is reached by moving the mouth to the syllable ‘ee’ as in squeak. All harmonic pitches given should be considered approximate and gestural.
horn
X – blow air through the instrument
harp
scordatura – strings B2 and B3 are each to be tuned down by one quarter-tone (to B-quarter-flat)
--violin/cello
- = pressure trill: oscillate between harmonic and normal pressure in the left hand.
bow pressure
bow placement
*note: two additional vibrati are asked for in this piece: -slow, wide vibrato (swv) -fast, wide vibrato (fwv)
--general
-numbers in circles delineate cue numbers to be provided by the conductor (from 1-5)
-large, bolded numbers delineate the number of seconds which each respective bar will take
-large, boxed numbers delineate electronic cues to be triggered by the conductor
-material in boxes should be repeated until the end of its respective bold line
-the conductor should utilize a stopwatch from the front of the piece. Timestamps are provided at each bar not in a tempo. The conductor should reset their stopwatch at letter K (m. 34)
-glissandi last the entire duration of the note marked -accidentals last through the bar without octave displacement
vibrato
senza vib. poco vib.
molto vib. Krakowska vib. (crazy vib.)
program note
in drops of dew will I sink down and mingle with the dust is a line taken from the Hymns of the Night by the German Romantic poet, Novalis, which speaks of night as the threshold between life and death. Novalis died far too soon, at the age of 28, and his work has been an important and guiding light in my own 28th year. The past years have seen the passing of too many friends, and Novalis's writing has provided both comforting solace and a greater confidence in accepting mortality and fragility in my own person. In reading Novalis, I was immediately struck by this line and wanted to translate this motion of the absorption between water and dust into the sonic medium, a return into the earth A harmonic texture is set-up which becomes decentered in its own development, forcing it to journey through uncomfortable and odd territories before it reaches a level of satiation, signaling the arrival of a new, manifold substance. in drops of dew will I sink down and mingle with the dust was written for Ensemble Dal Niente.
DURATION: 9’
score is in C
Vibraphone - motor on slow soft mallets
Nick Bentz (2022-23)
5" 10"15"15"
5"10"15"15"
repeat ad lib.
shuffle ordering of notes after first iteration, leaning into moments of dissonance with others start pattern slow and get faster ad infinitum
repeat ad lib.
shuffle ordering of notes after first iteration, leaning into moments of dissonance with others
repeat ad lib.
shuffle ordering of notes after first iteration, leaning into moments of dissonance with others start pattern slow and get faster ad infinitum
incorporate
begin slurring notes together get faster ad infinitum
register begins thinning
