Richard Barrett. news from nowhere wind players, 1 percussionist and (optional) drone instruments. performing score

Transcription

1 Richard Barrett news rom nowhere 0 wind layers, ist and (otional) drone instruments erorming score

2 (0) a comonent o ONSTRUTION (resistance & vision art ), commissioned by Liverool ultural aital 00. Duration 7 minutes aroximately to Peter Neville Instrumentation wind layers each using at least dierent instruments, u to a maximum o (one or each indicated change o instrument) ist using a single instrument able to roduce at least distinct timbres, in raid succession where necessary (examles: Udu, djembé, bodhran, darabukka, washboard...) (otional) drone instruments, as many as ossible, able to roduce sustained sounds (winds, strings, electric guitar with E-Bow, bowed iano or vibrahone, organ, theremin...) Perorming instructions Winds: One or more o the instruments (reerably as many as ossible!) used by each layer should be an early and/or olk and/or home-made instrument. hoices o instruments or each entry may be made sontaneously or in advance, taking into account that the score sometimes seciies that octave transosition should not be used (where this instruction does not aear it can be assumed that any itch may be transosed into any octave) and that the individual character in timbre, intonation, articulation etc. o each instrument should have an oortunity to be emhasised. Each erormer lays a sequence o 5 events (numbered -5 at the to let-hand corner o the box containing the indications or this event - these indications are to be taken as holding rom its beginning to its end unless otherwise seciied) whose starting and ending oints are indicated in relation to the notated (sometimes in the middle o one o its notes). One or more o the layers will at any given time be laying the more or less as written, while others might be relating to it more tangentially according to the instructions, or imrovising reely (which might include any kind o relation to the, including none). The result should be that the melodic line is constantly changing in colour and character, sometimes going out o ocus or becoming artly submerged but never entirely disaearing. Dynamics may be taken as average values or the event in question; extreme deviations should however be rare. An imortant asect o erormance technique should be the attention aid by each layer to imagining and creating interrelationshis between the sound-structures imlied by the skeletal notated materials, and between the activities o the other layers. The word microtonal in the indications means, or the resent context, simly an interval smaller than a semitone. M = ollow the notated (with any additional obligatory or otional indications - see below)! = ree imrovisation (also with otional indications) = otional suggestions, or examle multihonics. The resence o some tye o material or behaviour as an otion somewhere in the score in no way recludes its aearance elsewhere (at oints where it is not mentioned). A double-headed arrow means between these limits (o dynamic, duration etc.) = change instrument - ossibly to one you have used reviously, but not the one used in the revious event Percussion: each o 6 sections is reaced with,, or A (all) to indicate how many o the dierent sounds are to be used in that section. The "" sections should naturally use dierent sounds rather than always the same one, esecially in the last section, and the rhythmical and dynamic characteristics o the notated material might suggest which sounds and combinations would be most suitable or each section. Rests in the art are there to avoid excessive numbers o tied notes and have no imlications or whether a sound is damed or allowed to ring.! = ree imrovisation Drones are to be layed by as many erormers as available, not less than (unless this art is omitted altogether). The notated itches may be layed in any octave, excet where indicated, and may be inlected by as much as a quartertone in either direction but (again excet where indicated) with no urther ornamentation, so that the always stay in the background o the main. I a sound is reattacked (when necessary to take a breath or change bow direction, but also in other tyes o instrument ad lib, as long as the overall drone texture is erceived as continuous) may begin with dierent intonation and/or in a dierent octave, but always with as little audible attack as ossible. The arrows beore and ater new itches indicate a timesan within which layers individually sto laying the revious itch and begin the new one, so the entry o new itches is usually staggered to a greater or lesser extent through the ensemble. The new itch may be attacked directly or reached by legato or glissando rom the revious one. All attacks should be unobtrusive or nonexistent. News rom Nowhere is the title o a ost-technological utoian romance written around 90 by the artist, designer and socialist William Morris, whose rotagonist inds himsel waking u in early st century London which seems like a kind o neo-mediaeval world, although rivate roerty and government have been abolished and the inhabitants are almost without excetion hay, healthy and long-lived. (The text can be read here: htt:// This music attemts to relect Morris naïve antasy o a non-uturistic uture by taking the ancient concet o a with ornamentation in diverse new directions.

3 news rom nowhere e = 7 Richard Barrett 0 microtonally around the revailing itch, each sound slightly dierent rom the others in itch and timbre microtonal glissando to or rom the revailing itch M tenuto/marcato semre distorted timbre ] short hrases in legato gracenotes, beginning and ending on the revailing itch staccato eg. or or etc. m semre M tenuto/marcato m semre occasional slight vibrato : 5:6 : (all instruments begin together) semre m short hrases in staccato gracenotes, beginning and ending on the revailing itch eg. or etc. legato M dim. semre microtonal itch-luctuations on each new itch in 5 / 0 (as high as ossible) 6:7 : interserse with silences m semre no octave transosition, vary seed within and between grous substitute any or all itches with dierent microtonal variants on each reetition / 0 m 6:5 6:5 : :7 6:7 (each drone-instrument begins the new itch indeendently, within this time-interval)

4 (irregular accel.) semre (see next system) M tenuto/marcato cresc. on each new itch in senza vibr. molto vibr. measured vibr. (see next system) () M / 0 6:5 :7 : 5:6 : : : m m 7 grous o -7 legato notes, itches rom this sequence each grou ( ) in order but starting anywhere in the "loo" durations: substitute one or more itches in a hrase with any others develo rom molto vibrato into wider and slower undulations in itch, becoming more irregular in amlitude and duration... semre timbral changes accelerate into slow "vibrato" / 0 : 5:6 9: 0: m m :0 9 6 M tenuto/marcato - "breathy" sound throughout microtonal trills (see next age) cresc... cresc... continuous raid alternation between changing airs o itches chosen rom these alternation between two distinctive-sounding ingerings on a single itch (also see next age) breath only M (see next age) 0 : 7: / 7:5 semre (as beore)

5 (increasingly wide trills/tremoli) unstable! durations:... (cresc)... multihonics only, based on any o these itches: move between multihonic and single itch tenuto/marcato - multihonics only, based on and emhasising the itches o the semre multihonic trills / 0 () 5 5 M single dense multihonic based on G# 5 M using any o these itches in ree order: legato - constant alternation between revailing itch and microtonal variation(s) o it semre sometimes in airs wider intervals between main itch and variants multihonic based on G#, alternating with as many others as ossible, accel. molto... erhas breaking u... / 0 () A cresc. oco a oco : : 5 () 7: 5 short hrases eg. semre 6 redominantly beginning with the revailing itch and continuing with a ree selection rom these: microtonal variations 5 M staccato semre iterated staccato eg. or or at beginning o duration : /A 0 :7 : : : :7 : 9: 7:5 (cresc. semre)

6 M legato, grous o between and 5 gracenotes beore each note, using itches rom this sequence (in order, starting at any oint): cresc. oco a oco dierentiate the durations o the gracenotes / sub. 6 (see next system) A 9:7 :9 0:... m sub. sub. m 6 7 dim staccato grace-note grous. searated by breath-auses, o between and 7 notes beginning and ending on the revailing itch and otherwise consisting o itches rom this sequence (in order, starting anywhere in the "loo"): substituting microtonal variations 6 M marcato, ending each note more or less early ad lib. dim. oco a oco... microtonal glissando away rom the itch / 0 (m) sub. m A semre (dim...) /A (dim...) () 7 M legato non tenuto, singing same itch as the instrument (no octave transositions!) hold itch with instrument, microtonal glissando away rom it with voice) intertwined instrumental/vocal glissandi around Bb (dim)... 7 M tenuto/marcato, always with microtonal trills range o gracenotes (no octave transosition!): (dim)... m 7 semre trill and glissando glissandi (ascending or descending) rom revailing itch to a minor rd or less above or below singing same glissando while laying semre

7 M legato, no octave transosition m M legato, no octave transosition m M legato, no octave transosition m M legato, no octave transosition m / 0 () :5 : 5:6 : 7:6 : no octave transosition! e = 7 6 M staccatissimo, ree octave transosition 9 M either va sora or bassa throughout, legato marcato, reely-chosen gracenotes and trills linking and ornamenting the itches sub. semre occasional louder accent (z or mz) M staccatissimo, ree octave transosition M 9 ragments o this section o the, seeded u irregularly to dierent degrees and almost always using microtonal variants o the itches staccatissimo, ree octave transosition tenuto staccato - no octave transositions! sub. semre occasional louder accent (z or mz) A M staccatissimo, ree octave transosition : : 6:5 : 7:5 : : : : 7:6 semre (tacet!) ree octave transosition as beore semre legato scales eg. 7:6 etc. - beginning rom revailing itch and mixing intervals reely between quartertones and minor rds accel. or rit. within scales 9 M legato dim... 9 extract itches rom, beginning always then extend and elaborate them M 0 (see next age) cresc... / 0 () :7 semre

8 (see next system) m semre link notes with legato gracenote scales. eg. but also etc. staccato grace-note grous / 0 () (tremolo or other kind o extended sound) (non trem) 0 dim... (see next system) lay the (varying in timing and/or intonation rom instrument ) but alternate the revailing itch with reely-chosen itches rom this sequence: substitute other itches reely or these : :... using rhythms o this kind: (where the revailing itch has the longer durations)... distorted timbre M (see below) semre / 0 0 M continue scalic gracenote links rom event 0 in instrument, but now adding trills to all notes dim... 6: : 5:6 5: 7:9 dim legato hrases, each consisting o all itches: each time with dierent distribution o transositions (octave higher, octave lower or at notated itch) and dierent distribution o durations durations: seed o trill becoming more irregular... non tenuto, ending each note early ad lib., with glissando (u to a ourth) away rom notated itch each time tenuto/legato, with glissando linking to the next itch / 0 (dim...)... hrases searated by: non legato M legato - glissandi (over entire duration) or ortamenti linking all itches semre (as low as ossible) glissando overshoots target itch and then returns to it :0 6:5 : :5 :9 : 6:

9 6 7 M (see below)... semre sarse, irregular staccatissimo sounds, varied in timbre and intonation, itches chosen reely rom: m semre occasional longer duration / 0 sarse, irregular short sounds, varied in timbre and intonation, each with a glissando o u to a major third in either direction, itches chosen reely rom: semre occasional longer duration, occasional staccatissimo : :... semre 9 staccato iterations brie gas in the stream o staccato sounds / 0 () M tenuto/marcato, always luttertongued m semre (brie bursts o raid tongued attacks laced irregularly) 6 dim... on each reetition substitute reely-chosen itches or between one and three o the notated ones, including octave transositions sustain one o the sounds or a longer duration, with luttertongue M tenuto/marcato distorted timbre on attacks dim. on each note in / 0 A () (m)

10 0 / A 0... with unitched sounds making connection to with unitched sounds making connection to M semre legato/ortamento - no octave transosition - range = M (see below) semre with unitched sounds making connection to / A 9 6 tenuto/marcato - no octave transosition - range = transitions to and rom breathy tone M semre legato, breathy tone 0 / A reeat with slight variations in temo o the -note hrase, u to our itches transosed dierently by octaves in each reetition some hrases with breathy tone, some almost only breath semre : :5 5: 5:6 m (ie. change the "" or each grou)

11 9 5 semre descending airs o itches, varying temo slightly, each using any two o these: (no octave transositions!) reeat the same air two or three times vary one itch o a air by a quartertone u or down 5 M tenuto/marcato, breathy sound sometimes vanishing altogether semre irregular diahragm accents as i at the end o a breath 7: :9 m m 55 5 (ure tone, no change in itch, timbre or dynamic, use circular breathing) 5 M legato, beginning almost with breath only cresc. oco a oco... gradually increasingly distorted sound ( with luttertongue, multihonics, trills, adding voice, gracenotes etc., singly and in combination) (sim...) :... ] (end together) (non dim.) Berlin February 0