BROWN
Tracer for Ensemble and Four-channel Audio
Score
EARLE BROWN
for Ensemble and Four-channel Audio
Program Notes
The title is that of a painting by Bob Rauschenberg. Bob and I have been friends since 1952 and he and his work have been an influence on my work for many years and perhaps my work on his, in the early days. There has always been a layering and collage process in my work; the idea of 2 or more things transforming each other by being in “flexible” relationships to one another. Musical performance allows these relationships to change from performance to performance in a kind of endless re-association of the composed elements of that piece. In 1952 I called this a “mobile score” (having been influenced by Calder) but it has since been officially called “open form.” TRACER , being a kind of “homage” to Bob, has even more of this quality of endless and unexpected transformability than most of my other works, which is a condition that Bob himself might very well utilize if he were to compose sounds in time — which, as we know, he just might — at any moment.
The four channels of tape material are on endless tape cassettes* (no functional beginning or end). The quality and time relationships of what is on each cassette does not change but the four cassettes will constantly be in different temporal and spatial relationships to one another from performance to performance. The conductor therefore cannot learn or predict the rhythms and placement of the four-channel sound environment that he will be “conversing” with in performance. The instrumental material is all music composed by me (as are the sounds on the tapes) scored in an “open-form” context — spontaneously combined, juxtaposed, modified, and “formed.” Working in the gap between art and life, as Bob Rauschenberg once said.
Earle Brown, 1984–85
Robert Rauschenberg, American (1925–2008) Tracer 1963 . Oil and silkscreen on canvas, 841/8 x 60 inches (213.7 x 152.4 cm). The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, Missouri. Purchase: Nelson Gallery Foundation, F84-70 . Photograph by Jamison Miller. Art © Rauschenberg Estate / Licensed by VAGA, New York, New York
Instrumentation
Flute
B b Clarinet
Bass Clarinet
Violin
Cello
Double Bass
4-channel Audio
TRACER may not be performed without 4-channel Audio.
*Note: As of 2008 , the four endless tape cassettes used at the time of the creation of this work have been replaced by digital audio and a software player. System requirements are a PC or Mac computer, four-channel audio interface, and four loudspeakers positioned around the audience.
The player program for Mac/PC and the four audio channels can be found on the media delivered as part of the score for the audio engineer. The program is a “Max/ MSP ” patch and allows four-channel playback of the audio files, as well as routing and mixing of the channels for maximum control from within the computer. Endless audio loops simulate the original endless cassette tapes. The program supports the generation of random entry points. The latest version of the software player can be found at www.earle-brown.org.
Performance Notes
Winds:
Page 1 , events 1 – 3 – 4
Page 2 , event 2
Page 3 , events 1 – 5
Page 4 , all figures
Can be conducted as trio, duets, or solos ( direct cues to 3 , 2 , or 1 musician, followed by downbeat). Remember that these events can be performed from very slow to very fast, inclusive.
The figures and/or events may be interrupted (by the conductor) and when resumed, starting at the place of interruption and continuing until end or next interruption (conductor producing silences and bursts of sound).
Events (in winds), page 1 , event 1 ; page 2 , event 2 ; page 3 all events, to be considered as repeating loops — i.e., always begin again at point of previous interruption. The same applies (where parallel) to the strings’ score and parts.
Let the instrumentalists be quite free and very virtuosic Let them improvise rhythm and instrumental timbre (in page 2 , event 2 , for instance).
Performance Notes by Earle Brown
DIRECTIONS FOR PERFORMANCE
Earle Brown formulated general instructions for “open-form” sections and proportional notation for earlier compositions, such as NOVARA ( 1962 ; published by Editions Peters), excerpted below:
P RELIMINARY N OTES
Spontaneous decisions in the performance of a work and the possibility of the composed elements being “mobile” have been of primary interest to me for some time; the former to an extreme degree in FOLIO ( 1952 ), and the latter, most explicitly, in TWENTY FIVE PAGES ( 1953 ). For me, the concept of the elements being mobile was inspired by the mobiles of Alexander Calder, in which, similar to this work, there are basic units subject to innumerable different relationships or forms. The concept of the work being conducted and formed spontaneously in performance was originally inspired by the “action-painting” techniques and works of Jackson Pollock in the late 1940 s, in which the immediacy and directness of “contact” with the material is of great importance and produces such an intensity in the working and in the result. The performance conditions of these works are similar to a painter working spontaneously with a given palette.
The conductor may conduct the events in any sequence or juxtaposition, in changing tempi, loudness and, in general, mold and form the piece. The inherent flexibility of the materials allows the work to constantly transform itself and re-express its potential, while the sound materials and characteristics which I have composed contain the essential “identity” which makes this work different from any other.
I have felt that the conditions of spontaneity and mobility of elements which I have been working with create a more urgent and intense “communication” throughout the entire process, from composing to the final realization of a work, I prefer that each “final form,” which each performance necessarily produces, be a collaborative adventure, and that the work and its conditions of human involvement remain a “living” potential of engagement.
S CORE AND STR u CT u RE
The conductor may begin a performance with any event on any page [in TRACER large numbers in black are used to denote “pages;” numbers in red, and each solo line on
pages 4, can be considered an “event”] and may proceed from any page to any other page at any time, with or without repetitions or omissions of pages or events, remaining on any page or event as long as he wishes.
The numbers of the score pages to be played from are indicated to the musicians by a movable arrow on a placard displaying the page numbers 1 to 4 — the number and arrow being clearly visible to all members of the group, and the arrow comfortably within reach of the conductor.
It is suggested that the podium be wide enough (or that enough music stands be used as a podium) for all four score pages to fit next to one another so as to be visible to the conductor at all times during the performance. (In the parts, all of the events on all of the pages are visible to the musicians without the necessity of page turns.)
T IME N OTATION *
There is a built-in factor of flexibility in the notation and scoring of this piece because the availability of forms is based on letting go of the idea of metric accuracy. This is achieved through the notational system used in this work. This system, which I have called a “time-notation,” is a development of the work in FOLIO ( 1952 and 1953 ) and most clearly represents sound-relationships in the score as I wish them to exist in performance; independent of a strict pulse or metric system.
It is a “time-notation” (now generally called “proportional notation”) in that the performer’s relationship to the score, and the actual sound in performance, is realized in terms of the performer’s time-sense perception of the relationships defined by the score and not in terms of a rational metric system of additive units. The durations are extended visibly through their complete space-time of sounding and are precise relative to the space-time of the score. It is expected that the performers will observe as closely as possible the “apparent” relationships of sound and silence but act without hesitation on the basis of their perceptions.
It must be understood that the performance is not expected to be a precise translation of the spatial relationships but a relative and more spontaneous realization through the
[* This applies only to the sections in T RACER in which conventional rhythmic notation is not used.]
involvement of the performers’ subtly changing perceptions of the spatial relationships. The resulting flexibility and natural deviations from the precise indications in the score are acceptable and in fact integral to the nature of the work. The result is the accurate expression of the actions of people when accuracy is not demanded but “conditioned” as a function within a human process.
C OND u CTING
The conducting technique is basically one of cueing ; the notation precludes the necessity and function of “beat” in the usual sense (although the conductor does indicate the relative tempo). The page which contains the event to be played is indicated by the arrow, as previously explained. The number of the event to be performed is indicated by the left hand of the conductor—one to five fingers. A conventional (right-hand) down-beat initiates the activity. The relative speed and dynamic intensity with which an event is to be performed is implied by the speed and largeness of the down-beat as given with the right hand. Nearly all of the events in the score have been assigned dynamic values. These are acoustically accurate in terms of instrumental and ensemble sonority and balance and must be respected as written, although the conductor may “override” the indicated dynamic values and raise or lower the over-all loudness.
The “graphic” notations . . . are a generalized way of indicating instrumental activity and non-characteristic sounds. Observe very carefully the character and rhythm of the graphics, the verbal indication of technique of articulations, and the approximate frequencies covered by the rise and fall of the graphic line. All sounds are basically delicate and microtonal.
The conception of the work is that the score presents specific material having different characteristics, and that this material is subject to many inherent modifications, such as modifications of combinations (event plus event), sequences, dynamics, and tempos, spontaneously created during the performance. All events are always prepared by a left-hand signal and initiated by a down-beat from the conductor; the size and rapidity of the down-beat implies the loudness and speed with which the event is to be
performed. The conductor must, as with any notation, insist on accurately articulated relationships from the rhythmic “shape” of phrase and pitch sequences in this work.
G ENERAL M ODIFICATIONS OF E VENTS
conducted fermata : the conductor may introduce a fermata at any time during the performance, in any single event or combination of events. Both hands cupped towards the orchestra and held stationary indicates that all musicians in that group should hold the sound or silence which they are at that moment performing, until the next sign from the conductor tells them either to cut off or to continue from the point of interruption. A cut-off is signaled with both hands and must be followed by another eventsignal from the left hand and a down-beat. To continue , the conductor moves both hands from the “hold” position back to the body and then outward towards the orchestra, palms up (as if giving the initiative back to the orchestra).
conducted stop : the conductor may stop any event or combination of events at any time during the performance. The normal, two-hand cut-off signal will silence his entire group. Leaving the hands up will hold that silence until the signal to continue from the point of interruption is given. If the hands do not remain up in “hold” position, the musicians are to expect another event-signal from the left hand, and a down-beat.
modification of single event : any two-hand cut-off signal affects the entire group. The conductor may wish, however, to modify only one event among two or more events being performed simultaneously. To do this he signals the number of the event to be modified with his left hand; then indicates the modification — a hold or cut-off — with only his right hand. (Events not indicated by the fingers of the conductor’s left hand continue to proceed normally.) It is absolutely essential that the orchestra members clearly understand this difference in signaling: a hold or cut-off by both hands affects an entire group; a hold or cut-off by only the right hand affects only the event indicated by the fingers of the left hand. Players whose parts do not contain events signaled by the conductor’s left hand must remain unaffected by his subsequent right-hand indications.
As soon as the conductor initiates (by left-hand event-signal and right-hand down-beat) a new event that appears on the player’s part, the preceding event is automatically cancelled. No specific stop-signal is required. The player simply discontinues the event he is playing and, without break between events, begins to play the new one.
With these procedures clearly understood by the conductor and the musicians it is possible to achieve smooth transitions and long lines of connected material of extreme complexity and frequent modification. The first impression derived from the score will be one of many sporadic fragments. This wealth of fragments shows the numerous formal possibilities inherent in the work, and it is this realization, not the fragmentations, that must become the dominant characteristic of performance.
DYNAMICS
All indications of dynamics are relative to the instrumental technique and register of the particular sound called for, i.e., a string sound to be played col legno tratto, sul ponticello , with a dynamic of ffff, must be played as loudly as possible regardless of the dynamic intensity produced by the same dynamic marking in an instrument of a different nature. Thus, a low C in the Flute marked ffff is not expected to have the same volume as a middle-register tone marked ffff in a clarinet. This simply means that the flutist is to play his tones at the maximum volume available in that register of his instrument. The pppp indicates that the sound is to be as soft as possible. All dynamic indications are “balanced” in this way, relative to their acoustic functions within the event-structures and the characteristics of the instruments employed in them.
F u RTHER MODIFICATIONS
After considerable rehearsal, sufficient for the musicians to feel secure in their flexible but very accurate relationships to one another in each event as they appear on the pages of the score, it is possible for the conductor to use some of the individual lines of the events as solos . This possibility considerably expands the formal potentials of any performance but I insist that the formal integrity of the events as they are scored be maintained for the most part. The events, as scored, give the work a strong identity and the individual lines as solos should be used only as variations on the identifiable events, as scored
Earle Brown
Earle Brown was born in 1926 in Lunenburg, Massachusetts, and in spirit remained a New Englander throughout his life. A major force in contemporary music and a leading composer of the American avantgarde since the 1950s, he was associated with the experimental composers John Cage, Morton Feldman and Christian Wolff, who – together with Brown – came to be known as members of the New York School. Brown died in 2002 at his home in Rye, New York.
Earle Brown wurde 1926 in Lunenburg, Massachusetts, geboren und blieb im Geist ein Leben lang Neuengländer. Ab den 1950er Jahren war er eine treibende Kraft in der zeitgenössischen Musik und einer der führenden Komponisten der amerikanischen Avantgarde. Enge Verbindung unterhielt er zu den experimentellen Komponisten John Cage, Morton Feldman und Christian Wolff, mit denen gemeinsam er später der sogenannten New York School zugerechnet wurde. Brown starb 2002 in seinem Haus in Rye, New York.