What the Blind See [excerpt] by Aaron Einbond

AARON EINBOND

WHAT THE BLIND SEE for viola, bass clarinet, harp, piano, percussion, and electronics

WHAT THE BLIND SEE

Viola: Scordatura, written at the sounding pitch.

for viola, bass clarinet, harp, piano, percussion, and electronics

AARON EINBOND 2008-09

m.s.p. s.p. s.t. m.s.t. c.l.b., c.l.t. 1/2 c.l.b.

Commissioned by IRCAM / Centre Pompidou for the Festival Agora and Ensemble Lâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;Instant DonnĂŠ

molto sul ponticello (directly on the bridge). sul ponticello (near the bridge). sul tasto (near the tailpiece). molto sul tasto (directly on the tailpiece ). col legno battuto, tratto (wood of the bow without hair). 1/2 col legno battuto (wood of the bow with some hair). Dampen the string with several fingers to produce white noise without pitch.

duration ca. 18 minutes

Exaggerated bow pressure to produce a distored sound with some of the indicated pitch remaining. Play between the bridge and the tailpiece.

Instrumentation Viola (scordatura C ! B flat)

Strike the table of the instrument with the fingers near the indicated position:

Bass clarinet in B flat, notated at fingered pitch. Harp (with triangle beater, plastic plectrum, knitting needle, and contrabass bow)

Natural harmonic at the indicated pitch, two octaves above the G-clef.

Piano (with plastic plectrum, wooden snare drum stick, knitting needle, and plastic fishing line) Perussion (1 player): Vibraphone (motor with adjustable velocity) Marimba (5 octaves) 6 Crotales (F#6, C#7, D#7, E7, A7, B7) Tam tam (large symphonic) Bass drum (large symphonic) mallets: very hard Vibraphone mallets, superball mallets with wooden handles, brass glockenspiel mallets, wire brushes, wooden bundles, pine cone, and contrabass bow.

Notes

With the string dampened, ricochet c.l.b. while moving the bow toward (or away from) the bridge to produce a glissando up (or down).

With the string dampened, slide the hand in the indicated direction to produce a glissando of filtered noise. Bass clarinet: tk

Double-tongue. Colored breath with some pitch.

Âľ,B

1/4-tone above, below. Accidentals hold for the entire measure. Gradual change between playing techniques.

Breath or articulation alone to produce white noise with no pitch. Key noise ad lib. following the approximate register indicated.

Black diamond noteheads indicate a quarter-note value. Hollow diamond noteheads.are used to indicate all other values.

Tongue slap combined with colored breath.

Gracenotes before the beat and

Tongue as fast as possible for the duration indicated by the large note.

on the beat to be played as fast as possible.

Deceleration, beginning as fast as possible.

Clef used for un-pitched playing techniques, indicating the relative register on the instrument.

Explore the partials of a multiphonic following the indicated contour.

Bass clarinet fingerings: Piano:

Prepare the three indicated strings with plastic fishing line, rosined and threaded around the strings. Play on the keyboard while muting the string near the nut to produce some pitch.

Play on the keyboard while muting the string in the center to produce almost no pitch.

Play on the keyboard while touching the string lightly in the center to produce a harmonic-rich sound. Draw a plectrum along the string lightly and quickly toward the keyboard. Draw the plectrum along the string with pressure to produce the indicated rhythm against the coils.

Harp: The C1 and F3 strings are retuned to the indicated pitches. The score is written at the sounding pitch.

Play on the strings between the nuts and tuning pegs.

The indicated strings are muted with a cloth woven between the strings.

On the sides of the tuning pegs, glissando while applying pressure Play on the metal harp.

The indicated strings are muted with a piece of paper woven between the strings. Draw a mallet along the harp to produce a sustained white noise. Xylophonic sound: play while pressing on the string with the other hand near the table. Tremolo with a mallet on the harp, moving toward or away from the keyboard to produce a glissando. Dampened: play while pressing with the other hand in the middle of the string. Draw a plectrum along the string lightly and quickly. Play the strings between the nuts and tuning pegs.

Percussion: â&#x20AC;&#x153;Dead strokeâ&#x20AC;?: strike while leaving the mallet in contact with the instrument to dampen the sound. Play on the resonant tubes of the Vibraphone or Marimba in the approximate register indicated.

On the tuning pegs, glissando while applying pressure. Strike the table or back of the instrument with the palm, fingers, or fingernails.

Draw the palm lightly along the table to produce a sustained white noise without pitch.

Vibraphone and Marimba: draw the mallet along the key or resonant tube to produce a sustained sound. With superball add pressure to produce a distorted sound with some of the indicated pitch remaining. Tam tam and Bass drum: draw the hand or mallet in a curve along the surface of the instrument to produce a sustained sound accentuating the friction with the skin or metal. With superball add pressure to produce a sustained pitch. Draw the superball lightly over the instrument to produce a fine staccato at the indicated pitch.

IRCAM

CONCERT AGORA du 13 Juin 2009 - Salle 400

Centre Georges Pompidou

plan n°: 002

Création

Aaron EINBOND: “What the blind see “

Implantation

date : 25/05/2009 Etude Sylvain CADARS Tel : 00 33 1 44 78 48 78 Fax : 00 33 1 44 78 15 40 cadars@ircam.fr

Pour Clarinet Bass, alto, piano, harpe et percussions

vers régie salle

Patch (24)

Splitter 16 in

vers régie enregistrement V

Technical Specifications

WHAT THE BLIND SEE Aaron Einbond AKG 414

SCHERTLER AKG C535

Cursus 2 in Music Composition and Technologies, IRCAM, Paris. Premiere 13 June 2009, Ensemble L’Instant Donné, CentQuatre, Festival Agora, Paris. Aaron Einbond and Eric Daubresse, technical realization.

sous Tubes

AKG C535

MK4

sous Tubes

ACCUSOUND MK4 ACCUSOUND

- 2 Apple MacBooks Intel 2 GHz, 4GB RAM, Max/MSP 4.6.3 with FTM 2.3.7 - 2 audio interfaces (RME Fireface 800, 400, or similar) - 2 MIDI pedals and interface - 8-channel output, plus additional speakers to amplify the ensemble - microphones as necessary to amplify and treat the five musicians (see attached diagram of microphones used for the premiere) - Approximate speaker placement:

SCHERTLER

MK4

DPA 4021

Harpe

KM140

Stage

+ DPA 4061

Cla B

2 1

Tam

Marimba

Equipment

Vla

DPA4021

AKG 414

KM140 + DPA 4061

Audience

Liaison MIDI via XLR

SUB L

Pédale MIDI

SUB R

5 6

ST L

Microphones are chosen to give as close an amplification of the quiet sounds of the ensemble as possible. Contact microphones may be used on certain instruments: Schertler contact microphones on the surface of the bass drum and metal interior of the piano, Accusound contact microphones on the surface of the tam tam and table of the piano, and DPA microphones clipped on the tailpiece of the viola and interior of the harp. These are complemented with aerial microphones (see attached diagram). The electronic events are triggered by the violist and bass clarinetist with the pedals, or from the computer by an assistant. The two pedal sources are not differentiated in the patch. The electronic patch provided requires the computer program Max/MSP 4.6.3 and the signal processing package FTM 2.3.7. The audio input to the patch may be lightly compressed.

ST R

SCENE HP 2

HP 1

HP 3

UPA 1-P

PUBLIC HP 8 UPA 1-P

HP 4 UPA 1-P

HP 9

Startup 0. The following error messages are normal: Mac1: • error: vbap: Configure loudspeakers first! Mac2: • warning: #N: extra arguments for message "s" 1. Select network address on Mac1 and Mac2. 4. DAC on. 2. Init1, wait for corpora to load on Mac2. 5. Activate pedal. 3. Init2, wait for soundfiles to load on Mac1. 6. Spacebar or pedal to activate first event. I gratefully acknowledge Ensemble L’Instant Donné for their samples and collaboration. I thank Diemo Schwarz for the CataRT concatenative synthesis package, and Diemo Schwarz and Jean Bresson for their research contributions. I thank Eric Daubresse, Yan Maresz, Mikhail Malt, Emmanuel Jourdan, Jean Lochard, and Alexis Baskind for their guidance and Max/MSP objects and externals.

HP 10

MPB 200

HP 7 UPA 1-P

HP 5

02:02:02:02

UPA 1-P

DM2000 N°1

HP 6B MPB 200

Regie salle

HP 6A MPB 200

to Ensemble Instant Donné for the Festival Agora

Transposed score

Lointain, q »60 , e»120 Viola

Pédale 1

fingers on table of instrument c.l.b.

6. 6. 6. ® Oy. y. J O 6 Ø œ

1 Bass Clarinet in B b

∑

WHAT THE BLIND SEE

6. 6. 6. ® y. yJ. O O

∑

for viola, bass clarinet, harp, piano, percussion, and electronics

∑

6. 6. . y ‰ ®O y. O y. O 6

∑

6. 6. . y ®O y. OyJ. O

∏6 œ

∑

concatenative Vla.

∑

AARON EINBOND 2009

. 6. 6. .. O ≈ yOy. Oy.

∑

add Hp. samples

Pédale 2

muted with cloth sempre 7

∏

Harpe

6. 6 . .

j œ bœ œ

E b F b G # An Dn C b B b

fingers sur la table

∑ ∑

‰

≈

œ 6. 6. 6.

∑

ã Piano

Vibraphone, Marimba

2 8

Percussion Crotales, Tam-Tam, Bass Drum

∑

2 11

Vla.

2 8

.. . Ù OyOy Oy œ 3

B.Cl. in B b

‰

7 4

∑

2 8

F +y ® y. y. y. y. y. y. O OO

pizz.

4 4

∑

2 8

.....

. y OO O O Ù y. y. y. y. y. y. y. y

7 4

∑

2 8

∑

gliss. (bow)

F c.l.b.

∑

y. O y. O y. y. y. y. y. y. y ®y O . π

c.l.t.

4 4

œ 4

add Vib. samples, filter B.D.

∑

filter Vla.

≈

‰

∑

≈. bœ.

≈

∑

fingers 6

bœ.

b œœ œ œ

∑

6. 6.

6. π

6. 6. 6.

∑

66 6 6

6. 6 . nails

≈ bœ bœ œ

Hp.

finger

sur la table

ã Pno.

& &

Vibraphone

Vib.

∑

wire brushes

®6 6

∑

6˝> 6 ‰ drawn

∑

ord. drawn

. œ˝

T.T. B.D.

∑

ã 11

∑ 12

∑

®. 6 6 6 6.

resonant tubes

∑

œ ∏

w 15

∑

‰

+ j œ. ‰ Œ Ó

∑

sub. stop on the surface

Bass Drum muted with cloth sempre wire brush drawn slowly over the surface

∑

˝ 6 6 6 66 6

∑ ∑

gliss.

b +œ œ

+œ .

B.D.

∑

∑ 18

∑ 19

∑ 20

˝ Œ œ

wire brushes

Ó 21