Two Roads Diverge?

(in geographically separated locations)

for Flute and Bassoon

Daniel Wright
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About Two Roads Diverge?:

Stemming from conversations with the players, the piece is a reflection of an activity shared by both the players
and composer: hiking. As a means to spend time during quarantine I found myself taking longer, more adventurous
walks and got thinking about how this could be applied to music; to musically wander. This was realized through the
creation of individual cells placed without specific preference to order, through which the players then choose their own
path (either premeditated or purely improvisatory) as they see fit. Another aspect that I’ve been considering is the
distance that separates the players. Under normal circumstances everyone would probably be on the same continent, but
given the situation, one lives in Vancouver and the other in Cape Town. It got me thinking: what would it mean to take a
walk simultaneously, despite the distance? What would it sound like? To that end – I have endeavoured to select a few
birds that one might theoretically hear if they were to walk in the morning in British Columbia (while also walking in the
evening in South Africa), in an attempt to demonstrate this.

Performance Notes:
Both Players:

General Note: Take your time with the music; many of the cells are intentionally unmeasured (albeit some meter is
implied) to allow you to form your own pace. The piece should be performed rubato, changing speeds slightly from one
musical cell to the next. There are lots of rests – spend time with them. The piece is aleatoric inasmuch as the ordering of
the cells is to be completely free, and the performer is encouraged to constantly explore alternate orderings. Several cells
in each part contain instructions for moments of improvisation in lieu of strict musical information. Finally, the piece is
meant to be performed alongside an electronic track featuring sounds from both locations, which will be provided to the
players during the rehearsal process.
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Glissando: Straight lines connecting one note head to the next are an indication of glissandi in both
parts.

Timing/Co-ordination: Timings at section beginnings/endings are meant as reference points, waypoints if you will.
If the players are feeling inspired, they are welcome to circle back and repeat material again, or take the given material,
and improvise with it, or around it. I find this experience akin to wandering; if you like something you tend to get
distracted by it (or at the very least put a momentary focus on it)! All that to say, do not worry about being over/under in
time. Each player should have a stopwatch app on their phone – though another alternative that I have found to work is
Chronograph. It’s a cloud-based synchronized stopwatch and guarantees the same start time
[ https://chronograph.io/ ]. Useful in the event of simultaneous livestreaming.

Transition Moments: In between the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd sections are short transition moments (NB: the first two pages
should be laid out together as they are the complete first section). While there is only one cell in each – and it could be a
completely viable interpretation to have those occurrences be treated as solo – they are meant to focus the eye and/or ear
to those moments in preparation for moving on. The absence of music is not meant to directly signify silence, but a cue
that when that particular cell is heard, to begin moving on to the next section. It also must be stressed that there is no
issue with some overlap between sections.

Tri-Arrows: Meant to convey the openness of ordering, it is the hope of the composer that a linear left-
right, top-bottom approach is avoided.
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Flute:

Air Noise: Air through the instrument. Notated with a square notehead. Usually in combination with
a straight tone, moving from tone to air – or vice versa.

Alternate Fingerings: Several cells have tremolos between a given note and an adjacent microtone. All fingerings
for said microtones are provided in the cells that they appear in.

Rolling: In a few instances, a straight line (alongside text) that curves either upward or downward
is an indication to bend the pitch slightly by rolling the flute towards or away from you – and not to adjust via
embouchure.

Tongue Ram: Seal the embouchure hole completely with the lips and propel the tongue into the
embouchure hole. I find picking a hard consonant like /k/ or /t/ while moving the tongue helps to get a clearer sound.
Notated with a triangular note head and the abbreviation T.R. above.

Bassoon:

Multiphonics: I have attempted to use multiphonics common to most German Bassoons, if some do not
work feel free to use ones that you know of, or contact the composer and other suggestions can be provided. The
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fingerings for each multiphonic are included in the cells that they appear in. Fingerings taken from Leslie Ross’ website:
http://leslieross.net/multiphonics.html