vera's ghosts

8/20/2019 Vera's Ghosts

1/21

Vera’s Ghosts

for string orchestra

Lisa Renée Coons

Commissioned by the American Composers Orchestra

2014


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Seating/Setup: the strings should be organized in a 'U' facing the conductor, all sitting side-by-side (rather than in rows) to allow thespatialized gestures to move clearly between players. the normal ordering is still expected: vlns I to the far left of the conductor, thenvlns II, vlas, vcs, and dbs.

Vera's Ghosts: My once vibrant and passionate grandmother, Vera, has slowly been losing the battle with dementia—there is now almostnothing of her previous ‘self’ left. This piece tries to capture the pain and fear of that trajectory, both hers and my mother’s as she caredfor her. The material is traditional, because my grandmother loved romantic music. The conductor acts as protagonist, often losing controland becoming submerged in noise as ideas are passed quickly around the space between individual players, like an infection spreading.Moments of beauty deteriorate into angry episodes of confusion and frustration. This disease overwhelmed her, and what is left is onlyhow we choose to remember her—the end is a quiet hymn of homage—but that too has slowly been corrupted as she wastes away,

unable to communicate and living only with her ghosts.

noteheads with slashes indicate a flat bow position. at loud dynamics, these are scratch tones, at softer dynamics (at the end) the resultshould be a 'white noise' sound, like wind--mostly bow noise with just a hint of pitch.

gestures tied to nothing continue until the next gesture (usually out of time)

half flat and half sharp following a sustained tone means that pitchcan be glissed up or down slightly at player's discretion

in sections marked ' out of time' there are still bar lines. these are meant to help differentiate thegestures, but do not act as markers of 'measures.' gestures in boxes are also always out of time.

'damp' means dampen the string with left hand fingers (with battuto), undamp indicates ord. fingering

battuto means a percussive strike with the hair of the bow, col legno battuto indicates percussive strikes with the wood

s.p. means sul pont

s.t. means sul tasto

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if a scratch tone is tied to a ord pitch, the soundshould gradually change from distorted to ord tone. diamond noteheads indicate harmonics

Performance Notes

stacked noteheads without stems indicate a range for the gesture. play any note(s) between the two pitches. open heads are long tones,filled heads are shorter faster moving pitches to create texture

gestures in boxes indicate that each player enters/exits alone - not as a section. those with arrows pointing down are to be played byeach player in turn, starting with the left-most violin I. arrows pointing up indicate that the gesture starts with bases. these gesturesshould move through the ensemble as quickly as possible, each player starts playing when he/she hears the person to their right begin *do not wait for him/her to finish before starting your gesture - sounds should overlap creating an animated moving texture.

gestures in boxes without arrows mean entrances are controled by the conductor. he will shape the register and loudness of the sound(always linked, with higher register equating to louder sounds) with the altitude of his right hand. he will also indicate who is included

in the sound with his left hand. the length and exact shape of these gestures are at his discretion, but ideally they will ebb and flow,with small surges, like gusts of wind. players should try to follow his most minute movements as closely as possible.

dotted lines with open head arrows indicate a gradualchange between techniqes or gestures

s.p. ord.

solid arrows indicate that the gestureshould continue until otherwise noted

stems without noteheads indicate a gesture in which specific pitchesare to be determined by player to create the given contour.

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as close to wind sound as poss. contour becomes less regular, conductor shapessmall swells within the main swell

out of time

∑ ∑ ∑ ∑


B ∑ ∑


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∑ ∑ ∑


?

∑ ∑ ∑ ∑

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w

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15


20/21

°

¢

°

¢

°

¢

mp

p

q = 110

DD EE

209

mp

p

mp

p

mp

p

219

mp

p

mp

p mf

FF

p

mf

p

mf

p

mf

p

mf

6 2 6 2 6 7 6 4 6

6 2 6 2 6 7 6 4 6

6 2 6 2 6 7 6 4 6

6 2 6 2 6 7 6 4 6

6 2 6 2 6 7 6 4 6

6 6 4 6 4 6 4

6 6 4 6 4 6 4

6 6 4 6 4 6 4

6 6 4 6 4 6 4

6 6 4 6 4 6 4

ord s.t.

ord s.t.

B

ord s.t.

?

ord s.t. B

?

∑ ∑ ∑ ∑ ∑ ∑ ∑ ∑ ∑

rit extreme s.t.

extreme s.t.

∑

B

µ

B

µ

B

µ

B

µ

B

B

µ extreme s.t. Bµ Bµ

?

µ

B

B

µ

extreme s.t. Bµ

?

∑ ∑ ∑ ∑ ∑ ∑ ∑ ∑

B

out of time

all voices hold C# until conductor brings into wind-gust gesture. follow conductor's most subtle gestures -all legato/glissed playing - and play with as much white noise and as little clear pitch as possible. higher pitchesequals louder dynamics and more exaggerated vibrato (almost to the point of trills at the top of swells).

µ

B

B

µB B

?

µ

B

?

?

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G

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G

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G

G G

G

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16


21/21

°

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°

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p f

GG

232

p

f

p

f

p

f

p

f

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HH

239

pp

mp

repeat irregular-length and shaped gestures, conductor shapes in real time.approximately 30-45"

gradually fading away, with moresubdued gestures and fewer performers

B

B

?

?

?

∑

∑

B

∑

?

?

G

G

G

G

G

G

G

G

G

G

G

G

G

G

G

G G

G

G

G

G

G

G

G

G

G

G

G

G

G

G

G

G

G

G

G

G

G

G

G

17

vera's ghosts

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