david horne
Spike
(1998)
9'
first performance:
November 13, 1998
venue: Longy
School of Music, Cambridge, Massachusetts
performer(s):
Boston Musica Viva, conductor Richard Pittman
scoring: fl(=picc).bcl-perc(1):marimba/vib/crot-pft-vln.vlc
click here for pdf of score (1st 12 pages)- will
open in new window
Spike can perhaps best be described as a scherzo.
The ensemble throughout is cloaked in a type of aural 'camouflage,' something
that has increasingly preoccupied me in recent works. This acoustic interplay
is achieved by constantly linking the envelopes of various timbres in a
way that produces hybrid sounds. For example, the attack of one such hybrid
may come from the marimba, the sustain from a low piccolo flutter-tongue,
and the decay from a cello harmonic. The possibilities are practically endless,
but require a strict control of register and balance to make it work. In
this regard, the demands on the performers are considerable, aside from the
virtuosic pyrotechnics which the piece also asks from them. The manifestation
of this technique, in this work, is intended to create an effect that is
mischievous, impulsive and fleet. Harmonies bounce around the various timbres
at such a rate that the effect, at times, verges on disorienting the listener.
Underneath this volatile fabric, however, is a melodic strand which increasingly
permeates the work. At first, it seems like nothing more than a resonance
of the often harsh jabs from the more extroverted material. The vigorous,
angular music (which suggested the title) is gradually tempered by the calmer
melodic lines, though only somewhat. The work ends with a flutter instead
of a flourish, as the energy evaporates and the music contracts into the point
from which it started.
David Horne, October 1998
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