Jason Doell 'casualties' for solo guitar

casualties

by Jason Doell

for solo guitar in five section Toronto (2014)

written for Rob Macdonald world premier written/performed with support from the 2014 CMC Toronto Emerging Composer Award. The Canadian Music Centre Toronto Emerging Composer Award made possible by the generous support of Roger D. Moore and Michael Koerner

(the)

LEGEND

(of…)

some things to consider before you begin (this will make your life easier).

1) there is a visual/augmented audio component of this piece. employ it or donʼt. the choice is yours. I donʼt care. the piece will work with or without this ingredient but obviously your decision here will have a sizable impact on the final presentation of this music (and all the antecedent and subsequent activities involved in the performance of the piece).

2) you will need two guitars to play this piece. or letʼs just say the performance will be better of you have two.

3) the sections labeled CADMEAN VICTORY I – III should all be played on a guitar where every string is tuned to B. this is not negotiable. I do care about this. the score (where appropriate) is transposed for this scordatura. that is to say that the written notes are not the sounding notes in these sections.

4) when thinking about the phrasing as articulated in the score or the fingering, where I have not directly instructed which finger to use where, you should err on the side of letting as may notes ring as possible. I would like you to have this in mind when rehearsing/presenting this work. I have tried to encourage this by leaving little ʻl.v.ʼ reminders at the beginning of each line. I like when notes ring.

5) if I am going to give instructions about erring on one side or another, then we will need to discuss pauses. well, this is more like me talking at you than an actual conversation (letʼs be honest). the space (I will mention where this happens in the next section) between musical events is important and should be imbued with as much intention as you impose on each note you perform. Err on the side of length (but not too much). I mention this, because it is easy to treat a pause as part of the pulse or a breath at these points in a piece. this is not the case. not to be a pretentious (hopefully): I think that the concept of ʻmaʼ in Japanese painting or the British ʻmind the gapʼ are particularly good analogues of what Iʼm I would like the audience to experience at these pauses. please keep this in mind while rehearsing/performing.

6) warning: the beaming and stem direction of notes are not consistent nor do they always follow convention. I have a healthy distaste for convention in scores (ask me about it and youʼll get an earful). I have made decisions about beaming and stem direction based on a combination of considerations around phrasing or general score aesthetics. sometimes, scores looking nice has to trump convention. come on.

7) leeway, freedom, latitude, room, liberty, license. you have it (them) in many areas of this piece. take it (them). really. go nuts. donʼt be a jerk, remember people are listening but feel free to take things and run with them.

maybe, I was a little disingenuous earlier. maybe, Iʼm trying to make this piece more difficult than it needs to be. just a little. bit by tedious bit. (really Jason - come on).

8) this is not piano music. however like piano music, the top stave is the left hand and the bottom is the right hand. please keep this in mind (I know that some guitar music does this and some doesnʼt) because I have chosen not to remind in the score (I though it looked ugly).

9) each page is one section/ piece/ movement. you can play each section (or combination of sections) as miniatures if you so wish (I have constructed them with this in mind) or as movements (not really movements in a strict sense more like larger structural bits) of a larger piece (I have also conceived of the piece in this way). choose how you wish to deal with this mess. I donʼt care.

10) Each page has four lines (systems or whatever you want to call them). each line ends with either: no barline, a normal barline, or a double barline. no barline means that one structural component is complete (think of this as a long phrase or set of connected musical events) and should be followed by a pause (see instructions 5 and 7 for how to deal with the pause). a single barline means that that particular structural component is continuing to the next line ( as a the end of the first line of CADMEAN VICTORY I). a double barline means that the page is done.

11) sometimes youʼll see a time signature and sometimes you wonʼt. follow the time signatures just as youʼve been taught. for the unmetered measures there is an instruction for the length in seconds. treat this as a recommendation see instructions 4 and 7).

12) dynamics are found between both staff and apply to both hands.

13) in doing research for this piece, I discovered that there are a variety of ways to play the rasqueado technique. I do not care which you choose. I am interested in the sound of the nails on the strings. additionally, a distinct rhythm should not be present when this technique is employed. the technique should be played fast enough to blur any particular rhythm. in these moments a steady stream of sound is desired, though rhythms may bubble to the surface occasionally.

14) violent means violent.

the)

LEGEND

(of…)

my calligraphy is atrocious, so I rely on computers. picking behind the fretted note ( for both left and right hands). the square notehead is placed on the string that is to be plucked from behind the fretted note. the note in brackets is the note that is fretted. when the square notehead is in the left hand (like in the picture) you pluck the string with your index finger while fretting with a different finger. picking behind the fretted note and picking the note simultaneously. square notehead is place on the string that is to be plucked from behind the fretted note with the index finger of the left hand. if there is no bracket around the fretted note, this means that you also pick this note in a regular fashion with your right hand. extended rasqueado. this symbol indicates that the rasqueado technique is to be performed on the strings and body of the guitar simultaneously. bridge tapping. the triangle notehead indicates that the bridge is to be tapped. neck tapping. the open notehead with an x in the centre indicates that the back of the guitar neck is to be tapped with the top of the fingernails of the right hand. pinching the string. this notehead indicates that the string it is placed on should be pinched by the right hand. to perform this technique you need to place the pad (skin) of the outside your thumb against the string on the side closest to your head while picking the string from the other side with the tip of the nail of your index finger. behind the nut. this symbol indicates that the string should be strummed behind the nut. rasq.

rasqueado. play as instructed in 13.

upsize your performance. as mentioned in the first instruction, there is an auditory augmentation that is possible. in short, from the guitar that has the scordatura run a pick-up or contact mic to a volume pedal then to an amplifier. from the amplifier run cables to resonating speakers. place these speakers on any objects that you think will vibrate in an aesthetically pleasing way. no sound should be coming from the amp. for the premier, I placed five resonating speakers onto guitars that shared the same tuning as the micʼd guitar and on some broken guitars. the overall result should not me louder than the guitar that is being played but should just be some extra rattling, buzzing, creaking, and noise in the background. at the beginning of the score for CADMEAN II you will see hairpins going from 0-10. this is an instruction for the volume pedal to move from the off to full position. at the end of III you will see the opposite.

gratitude. gratitude. I have it and Iʼm going to express it here: the writing and premier of this work was possible because of the Canadian Music Centreʼs 2014 Toronto Emerging Composer Award which I won. I am incredibly thankful to Roger D.Moore and Michael Koerner whose philanthropy has made this award possible. I would also like to thank the jury of this award: Jennifer Warring, John-Mark Sherlock, and Rick Sacks for my selection. Being added to the list of fabulous composers who have won this award previously is truly an honour. Thank you to Rob Macdonald (for whom, I wrote this piece) for being a remarkable person and for all the help getting the piece to this point. Laslty but not leastly, thank you Matthew Fava (Ontario Regional Director for the CMC) for your guidance and friendship throughout the process.

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