Wanted Sound

Wanted Sound
For Flute, Voice and Violoncello
Performance Notes
Unless otherwise stated, all parts should be performed senza Vibrato.

Flute
A B joint flute is required
‘a.s’ – air sounds, should be played unarticulated unless otherwise stated
‘w.t’ – Whistle tone
Harmonics are given with fingered pitch below as a diamond note head and
with the sounding pitch above.
The multiphonics in the opening two bars are naturally unstable, and it is
expected and encouraged to allow them to fluctuate.

Voice
The vocal part moves between conventional sung passages and unpitched
sections, notated on a single line stave.
Many sections (e.g. bar 1) employ sung, Sprechstimme and spoken sounds in
succession. This should be performed as a fluid transition between the three
techniques. The spoken sounds here should still contain some pitch content.

Violoncello
M.P – Multiphonic, only one is used in bar 5. For this, the player should
finger the F# harmonic as in bar 1 but release the left hand from the finger
board almost immediately to allow the open string to ring.
m.s.p – Molto Sul Pont.
m.s.t – Molto Sul Tasto
IPA Pronunciation guide

[œ] – as in French Un
[ɘ] – as in About
[u] – as in Do
[ð] – as in The
[θ] – as in Thing
[ʃ] – as in Sure
[e:] – as in There
[a:] – as in Father
[ɔ] – as in Cor
[ʒ] – as in Genre
[x] – as in Loch
[t] – as in Top

In this exploration of the continuum between noise and pitch I wanted to focus on sounds that less
obviously fall into either category, and that contain both pitch and noise content. This is achieved
through manipulating different timbral techniques in each instrument, such as naturally unstable
alternate fingerings in the flute and combinations of changing bow position and pressure in the cello.
Rather than use a journey across the continuum as the basis for the pieces structure, I have
incorporated elements of both noise and pitch in each phrase to give the effect of the continuum
subtly underlining the music rather than serving as anything overarching. The one exception to this is
at the climax at bar 21, where the music briefly becomes entirely pitched before slowly returning to
more ambiguous territory.

First performed by Trio Atem on December 13th 2018

Score in C
Duration c. 2 minutes.