Shoals – Collaborator Briefing (Web Edit)

Nigel Morgan – December 2012

With the inclusion of a team of four post-graduate students from Hull University’sFiley Studios, the six Shoals for student ensembles are now moving towards a finalshape. Although there are six separate pieces making up Shoals, the plan is to performthem in an unbroken sequence punctuated by an intro and outro and four episodesdelivered by the Percussion Ensemble from East Riding. A preliminary running ordermight be:

Blaze: Introduction Percussion Octet

Weird Water Land Wind Quintet

Blaze: Episode 1 Percussion Octet

Deep Sea Diver Junior Choir

Blaze: Episode 2 Percussion Octet

Never Day and Under Night Cello Ensemble

Blaze: Episode 3 Percussion Octet

Into the Green Inverted Dawn String Quartet

Blaze: Episode 4 Percussion Octet

To the Dark Unseen String Dectet

Blaze: Finale Percussion Octet

There will be no time for changeovers between each piece: a factor that needs seriousconsideration in the light of preparing software or strategies for performance.

Collaborators should be able to begin work with the ensembles in January. Be advisedto keep copies of tickets or receipts for your travel costs to be reimbursed along withthe commission fee.

For an overview of work with the ensembles thus far, visit:http://www.soundingthedeep.co.uk/education-resources/

On the following pages are a series of briefs concerning each piece in Shoals.

Blaze – Introduction, episodes and finale for eight percussionists

This music in six sections is scored for eight percussion ‘kits’ made up of standardorchestral percussion, eight handheld instruments chosen by the performers, and liveelectronic processing – perhaps using Wii wireless gestural controller devicespossibly operated by the performers themselves.

The musical score will be a mix of conventional notation, graphic ‘box’ notation (asdeveloped by Morton Feldman), and a memorized library of motifs, loops andsynchronizing signals.

Sample ‘Box’ notation from the educational workshop with the percussion octet.

There will also be a second score superimposed over the music score containinggraphic instructions and images relating to gestures and movement to be undertakenby the performers.

The piece will involve an intro and outro bringing the percussionists on and off theperformance area playing samba band instruments (though not samba music as weknow it!). The episodes are played as vivid linking material between each of theremaining Shoals.

The electroacoustic part will involve live interaction from two university musiciansextending and manipulating percussive sounds. Since machine listening is not viablein this context, university musicians should visit a rehearsal or workshop to recordsounds for manipulation.

To the Dark Unseen – for ten-part string ensemble featuring 2 amplified soloviolins with live processing, and partial diffusion.

This slow, meditative (though slightly menacing) work for string dectet splits theensemble into two groups made distinctive by a) their tuning and b) their form ofmuting.

The score is almost predominantly made up of open strings and harmonics, but with atuning configuration providing for a complete Aeolian mode.

The two soloists provide a rich weave of gentle movement around and across theensemble’s slow progression through a series of sixty five-second ‘moments’.

Sketch abstract of the structure for To the Dark Unseen.

The electroacoustic part will subtly colour the texture and diffuse the solo linesaround the concert space as though the soloists were swimming sea creatures. Thiscould be attained through the use of processed samples from the ensemble recordedduring a workshop/rehearsal, or alternatively using synthesis based around thefrequencies of the Aeolian scale.

Weird Water Land – for wind quintet with electroacoustic accompaniment andinterventions

This single-movement score of composed in July this year is extended significantly toincorporate a series of solos and duos with drones and new introductory ‘harmonymusic’ allowing electronic extensions of the woodwind quintet sounds to create toeffect of the ensemble diving underwater.

It is suggested that these sounds will be in 16.1 8-channel surround sound and arepractical to rehearse with the ensemble using the university’s portable 8-channelsystem.

Into the Green Inverted Dawn – for amplified string quartet, live ‘pedal’processing and games controller.

The original score of July 2011 invites a level of player participation in many aspectsof its physical performance and structuring. It has been extended with a series ofinterventions that are in open-form and may be controlled by the players themselveseither live or via a pre-ordered play-list.

Each performer will play from an ‘active’ score on a wireless-connected laptop withpage turns synchronized via a foot pedal operated by the quartet’s leader.

Diagram of the ‘active notation’ system used in Nigel Morgan’sSelf Portrait for variable ensemble.

They will work directly with a soloist from the university team who will both record,process and trigger sounds from the quartet itself.

Although the work can be played without any electroacoustic intervention this concertversion will see the four instruments very heavily amplified and using the kind ofpedal effects common to electric guitarists.

Never Day and Under Night - for eight-part cello ensemble, laptop performerand sound designer.

Two very contrasting pieces make up this Shoal.

The first is an explosive descent and ascent using a rich palette of extended cellotechniques (already introduced in their June workshop).

The second that immediately follows is a slow meditative nocturnal chorale in eightparts, a chorale that has something of the character of a large consort of viols, playedwithout vibrato and muted conventionally (and unconventionally).

The electroacoustic backdrop it is hoped will use sampled sounds made andcontrolled on a laptop by one of the ensemble’s members. Sound design for this piecewill see two monitor speakers placed ‘inside’ and amongst the performing group.

Deep Sea Diver – for junior choir and electroacoustic drones

The poem by Robert Francis set to music here is the same poem upon which so muchof Sounding the Deep in its original setting of March 2011 for bass voice and piano isbased.

The first part of this setting can be performed as an optional interlude in the concertwork Sounding the Deep. This choral version is totally different and bears no relationto the original except in its text. It is entirely new.

In addition to the poem singers will be adding choral speaking passages from Beebe’sbest-selling book The Log of the Sun.

The electroacoustic drone material offers the opportunity for the work to beperformed in a version for choir and cello ensemble, a request previously made by thedirector of the Lincolnshire Cello Ensemble.