snow

a cueing/blending system for ensemble and radios

casey thomas anderson

snow (2009)
All ensemble members play an instrument and a radio. each radio should be tuned in between stations (an equal mixture of static and any radio broadcast). blending/tuning every component of the piece should blend together exactly (differences barely perceptible). tuning, timbre, etc., are matched across all parameters of the piece (dynamics, radios, other ensemble members, etc.). scale section (the ensemble chooses a scale) each musician cues another to play tones from the scale. a musician is cued in when a radio fades from niente to mp, and is cued out when the same radio fades back to niente. with each cue he plays long tones (until cued out). beginning from the octave, each musician descends to the tonic over the course of the piece. a musician plays a subsequent tone from the scale each time he is cued back in. phrase section (the ensemble chooses a phrase from the attached list) a phrase section occurs when all musicians are simultaneously playing tones from the scale. when this happens, the ensemble slowly begins to play the chosen phrase, in any octave, independently (repeating the phrase freely). each individual note of the phrase should be transposed to its closest tone in the scale (without repeating tones). rhythms are comprised of two values: short (black notes) and long (white notes). ties increase the duration of either rhythmic value slightly. each note is followed by a proportional amount of silence. a phrase section is over when one musician stops playing the phrase and cues another musician out with his radio. subsequently, the rest of the ensemble gradually returns to a scale section. phrase sections only occur a few times throughout the piece.

every part of this piece is to be executed slowly, methodically, and peacefully. the piece should sound/feel/be like snow.
(copyright 2010, casey thomas anderson)

phrases