Nicolai Worsaae Zugendlos (2008) for symphony orchestra Dur. 10′
SCORE
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Nicolai Worsaae Zugendlos (2008) for symphony orchestra Dur. 10′
FOREWORD This piece is in it's form and title, very influenced by my own compositional process. In this specific case it turned out to be a very frustrating process where things were constantly reviewed, and as a result of that, the piece was composed backwards, so to speak. Through the period from when I started in October 2007 to the 1st of April 2008 when I finally finished the piece, it happened quite often that I chose to start all over again and throw away the old stuff, except for maybe a couple of bars. The first longer part that I wrote and accepted became the end of the piece. Therefore the form is clearly a mirror of this thought about continuous restarts. In a way it's like a spiral or labyrinth. It looks familiar and yet you can't judge whether you have been there before. A form that I'll be so bold to claim quite well reflects the way people live their lives. Things are constantly repeated and yet nothing is like it was before. In the greater perspective this endless train has no goal or direction and its justification for existing cannot be formulated. This endlessness reminds me of the story “Aniara” by Harry Martinson. A story about an endless odyssey in space caused by an accident that brings the spacecraft out of course and leaves the passengers in this hopeless situation without any destination for their journey. In this hopeless vacuum they put their faith in the partly human computer to rescue and encourage them. But in the end they cannot repress the fact that they are bound to be lost in this unintelligible large universe. If my piece has any analogies to this, then perhaps it's not the form that's interesting, but the detail. The short glimpse that suddenly changes everything and becomes big. The German title is an invented word, or rather it is the two words “Zug” and “Endlos”, put together in the wrong order. Translated into English it would be train-endless or trainend-less. Referring to this image of a long endless train, moving through a landscape that gradually changes. In that perspective it is therefore not just a oincidence that the words are connected into one.
Nicolai Worsaae Copenhagen April 2008
PERFORMANCE NOTES General explanations: Dynamics: The range of the dynamics goes from Ø-Î. AI niente is used to give the impression of something that increases/decreases from or towards nothing. The dynamic graduations are relative and are sometimes used as an expression for the activity or articulative level. Yet the most common interpretation of the dynamics is as an indicator of the resulting level of the volume as well as the balance between the instruments.
Microtonalities: the notation for microintervals are: Quaternote up: Quarternote down: Three quaternotes up: Three quaternotes down: Smaller intervals than quaternotes:
For the conductor: if the repetion signs are followed by a “2x” or more, it is the indication of how many times it's going to be repeated. If the indication is f.ex “2x” it means that this section is to be played three times and so on.
Clarinet multiphonics:
Woodwinds: Play a rapid glissando of harmonics on the indicated fundamental. In this case on cl.
Airsound without pitch. Produced by blowing on the mouthpiece.
1
2
Quasi airsound with definable pitch. 3 Clickingsound from the keys. 4 Clicking and air sound, produced by, in the indicated rhythm. Click on the keys and at the same time blow on the mouthpiece. No pitch should be produced. 5
6
Mutes:
Brass: Airsound, produced by blowing on the mouthpiece.
For the trumpet and the trombone cup mute and Harmon mute are used. A so called “wa wa-sound” is produced by the other hand covering the harmonmute and by changing from covered to open this very characteristic change of soundcolour appears.
Trembling air sound. A sort of trembling is produced by shaking the hand in the bell. Trembling sound with pitch. Produced by the hand in the bell and by shaking the bell. A very fuzzy tone quality should appear.
A very fast “wa wa-sound” with a shaking or trembling effect.
This popping sound is produced by hitting the mouthpiece with the palm of the hand.
Percussion:
Harp:
Bubble folio (player 1): The bubble folio must be amplified. lt's advisable to send it through a loudspeaker near were it is produced and not through the loudspeakers in the back of the hall which should be reserved only for the sound of the syntheseizer.
Damp string rhythmically.
Use the tuning fork to produce a squeaky sound by turning it between two strings.
Large cymbal (player 2): lt might be nessesary to amplify the cymbal as well, to make sure that the wright “screaming-sound” can appear.
The tom (player 3): The metalwhisper used for the tom must be very stiff to produce enough sound.
Pianoforte / Synthesizer: Piano: The piano must be open and prepared with long chains lying on the strings. Because of the heavyness of the chains, it is advisable to put the chains far from the hammerhead to avoid destroying the pedalfunction.
Use a relatively hard mallet to hit the chaise of the piano. The sound should therefor be hollow and woodlike.
Inside piano-notation, used to show the player in which of the stringsections there is going to be played in.
Press down keys silently and hold as long as indicated. Press down the pedal very fast and aggressive, in order to produce a clusterlike sound.
Synthesizer: The syntheseizer “YamahaDX7” Must be set to the split function with A on 33 and B on 36. The volume should be controled by the player, however it's possible to let a sound technician control the volume if nessesary.
Strings: Divided strings: The division of the strings are in two ways. Either divided at the desk or divided into groups of desks. In the first case the right player at the desk takes the upper note and the left the lower note. When division in groups are used, the number of desks are indicated in the beginning of the bracket at the page. Normally each part having their own system. Because of that, numbers outside the bracket in the stringsection allways refers to the desknumber.
Playing tecniques: NB!!! The Italian expressions are in this case not used in their traditional and wrong interpretated/translated way. Therefore the expressions for being on the bridge and near the bridge are used in their correct way as Italian composers would use them. (See scores by Salvatore Sciarrino, Luciano Berio, Luigi Nono etc ... )
arco: pizz: a.p: s.t: a.p.e: s.t.e: s.p:
bowed plugged with the finger bow near the bridge bow on the fingerboard bow very near the bridge bow very far up on the fingerboard bow on the bridge
This tremmolo sign indicates a bowing as fast and smooth as possible in opposition to the measured tremmolo-notation. This sign indicates that the pressure of the finger on the string, apart from the normal procedure when producing harmonics, should be just a bit lighter. The sound/pitch-quality should therefore be more noisy.
This key (invented by Helmut Lachenmann) is a graphic image of the string instrument with the bridge in the top and the fingerboard in the bottom. (In the score not taking care of the vlc and db being opposite) It shows where on the instrument the bow or finger should be placed.
Sign for damping the strings with the left hand, so that a less clear pitch-sound as possible should be heard. Sign for not damping the strings. Used after the dampingstring-sign to indicate that it is the ordinary way of playing.
“bartok pizz� produced by plugging the string so that it hits the fingerboard. collegno: with the woodside of the bow tratto: dragged batutto: hitted quasi legno e arco: partly with the hair and the woodside of the bow flaut:
very fast bowing, using all the length of the bow, in just one movement.
Indicates oscillando or molto vibrato, all depending on the size of the waves.
Sign that tells the player how much bowpressure there should be used. If the rectangle is completely black, there should only be prouced a noisy scratchtone without definable pitch.
Des k1-3
Des k1-3
Met al bl oc ks