The Pequod - for Flute, Harp, & Electronics

The Pequod for Flute, Harp, and Electronics

Brian Petuch

The Pequod On Infinite Blueness Brian Petuch, 2015/2016

“Ah! how they still strove through that infinite blueness to seek out that thing that might destroy them!”

- Herman Melville (Moby Dick)

Scored for Flute, Harp, and Electronics Arrangement commissioned by Catherine Gregory and Mélanie Genin Original commission by andPlay

Duration: 11:16

Special Notations

Diminuendo to nothing Crescendo from nothing Indicates quarter sharp

Indicates quarter flat

Indicates a gradual change from one technique or tone-quality to another

FLUTE N – Normal A – Airy. Not quite aeolian sounds, but a breathy tone.

H – Harsh. A dirty, intense, slightly overblown sound.

OB – Overblow

Indicates singing. If a normal notehead is notated in addition to the boxed notehead, the flutiest should sing the boxed pitch and play the normal notehead.

*When a true glissando is not possible, a quasi-gliss is acceptable.

HARP N – Normal p.d.l.t. – PrÊs de la table

Ultra rapid, rhythmic gliss. Should sound more like a cluster than a gliss.

Pitch accuracy is not important.

A bisbigliando glissando is a sound effect that is produced by playing several fast glissandi one after another with alternating hands.

Thunder Gliss. A fast and loud glissando played on the lowest strings of the harp. The strings are played forcefully so that they rattle against one another creating a metallic thunder-like sound.

A slow upward glissando that creates a sound cluster of slow, multiple glissandi.

The arrow shows the direction of the glissando. Beginning and end notes are normally not played, the interval merely shows the span of the sliding fingers.

Crossed note heads indicate a scratch tone with a guitar pick. A plastic credit card or metal object is also acceptable. Pitch accuracy is not important.

Rub a rubber mallet (super ball stick) against the bass wire strings of the harp to create a “whale like� effect.

*Harmonics should sound an octave higher than their written pitch.

About the electronics

*Players use a click track to coordinate with electronics (click track provided by composer) *The electronic track is mixed in stereo. The performers will need a stereo PA system and a DAW to run the electronics with the click track. *Instruments should be amplified so that their volume matches and fits in with the overall volume of the electronic track. The electronic track should be heard as equal to the live performers so it should be set at a reasonably loud volume. *Add reverb to the amplified instruments.

A note from the composer The Pequod is the whaling ship in Moby Dick. I read Moby Dick last summer for the first time while on the coast of Oregon. The immensity of the dark Pacific coast only made the book more real to me. While reading I contemplated the scope of the Pequod’s journey on the vast sea and the scope of Captain Ahab's futile quest to conquer the white whale, which led to the Pequod's inevitable demise. It was both beautiful and terrifying and this piece tries to capture the spirit of the novel. I use the electronics and strings in a way that at times are abrasive and grating in order to feel the immense weight of an unforgiving and impartial world, and other times the music emerges with moments of light simplicity out of the darker more sonically oppressive moments.

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Brian Petuch 2015