Robert Honstein - Rise

RISE

for Orchestra

Robert Honstein 2013

FORPERUSALUSE ONLY

FORPERUSALUSE ONLY

RISE

Rise is a brief orchestral essay on moving upward. The music is one extended ramp, an awakening followed by a brief fall, landing somewhere different then where it began. It is also a meditation on the idea of the pastoral. From Vivaldi to Strauss, there is a long tradition of evoking the pastoral landscape in symphonic music. What does it mean to romanticize nature in the post-industrial, climate-changing 21st century? Perhaps this explains the somewhat haunting mood of the piece. There is a celebration of the natural world, but also an unsettled feeling that never resolves.

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FORPERUSALUSE ONLY

Score is in C

Duration ~ 8 minutes

Orchestra

2 Flutes (Flute 2 doubles Piccolo)

2 Oboes

2 Clarinets in Bb

2 Bassoons

2 Horns in F

2 Trumpets in Bb

1 Trombone

Timpani Strings

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Indicates an extremely slow bow with extreme bow pressure. Generally used to create grating, noise-filled tone.

Indicates a transition from slow bow and extreme pressure to normal speed bow and normal pressure.

other bow techniques

Vertical bowing. Bow parallel to the fingerboard, slowly moving the bow back and forth from the bridge to the middle of the fingerboard. The sliding motion should be extremely slow. Throughout the motion the bow must remain perpendicular to the fingerboard. Bow pressure should be just enough to create a quasi-pitched moaning sound. Tilting the bow helps. Mute string with Left Hand to ensure open string do not make a pitched sound. Dynamics reflect natural shape of the gesture.

bow placement

middle fingerboard

ord.

s.p.

m.s.p

bow over the middle of the fingerboard ordinary bow position

sul ponticello, bow near the bridge

molto sul ponticello, bow extremely close to bridge, almost on bridge.

Bow on the bridge. Use a very slow bow and fairly heavy pressure. The sound should be a soft white onise. Make sure to say on bridge and not too slip off the bridge.

Bow behind bridge. The pitch indicates which open string to play behind the bridge. Bow on the felt on the strings near the tailpiece. This is done with heavy bow pressure and an extremely slow bow speed. The effect is a gritty and abrasive scratch tone.

Bow on the tailpiece. Use an extremely slow bow. Starting with almost no pressure, gradually increase and decrease bow pressure while slowly bowing directly on the tailpiece. Quiet, resonant sounds should come in and out as the pressure fluctuates. You will have to experiment with different parts of the tailpiece to find the best sound.

finger techniques

indicates a glissando. unless otherwise indicated, all glissandi should be played smoothly, with as little interruption to the sound as possible and without retaking the bow, when possible.

When a glissando extends through an entire bar, beats are marked with stems. They should not be accented in anyway. The stems merely indicate the duration of the glissando. ONLY when articulation appears over a stem should the written rhythm be made audible.

Glissandi always begin immediately after the first striking pitch. Pitches written in the middle of two glissandi are only there to provide guideposts for the rate of change of the glissandi and should not be emphasized or sustained.

Woodwind and Brass

Air tone is an unpitched air/breath noise made through blowing air through the instrument. Trumpet, Trombone, Bassoon and Clarinet all make air tones. Each instrument has a slightly different technique for producing the air tone. For clarinets air escape around the mouthpiece, Bassoons remove the reed and blow directly through tubing, Trumpet and Trombone are more straightforward. In each instance the air tone is unpitched! The result should be a white noise like sound. Dynamics indicate shape of gesture. Sometimes though it is necessary to simply play as loud as possible in order to make effect audible. Even when playing the air sounds 'as loud as possible' you should create a hairpin like dynamic shape, like in a inhale/exhale sound.

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Other notation

crescendo al niente, crescendo from nothing, as in starting crescendo from the softest dynamic possible indicates a rapid crescendo that happens suddenly at the end of a longer, otherwise gradual hairpin

Robert Honstein 2013 (rev. 2022)

© 2013 Robert Honstein

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