Sarah Wald
Remote Ensemble Project: Instructions for Participants Listen to the recording you receive and then record a response to it (audio only). Try to keep the pitch material limited to the pitches (six-note scale) you hear in the recording, though you do not have to keep the pitches in the order—or octaves—presented. Also, feel free to inflect the pitches by incorporating microtones. Many liberties are allowed in terms of how you respond to other parameters in the recording you receive. Gestures and contours are free: for example, if you hear a rising line, you can either answer it with another rising line, or with a descending line. Or something else!—like a jagged contour or a static line. The same principle applies to rhythm: each player can decide how closely they wish to imitate the recording they receive, or how far they wish to deviate from it. It is suggested—but not required—that extended techniques or timbral effects in the recording be imitated in some way on the answering instrument. For example, a tremolo on the violin might be “converted” to flutter tongue, or rapid double tonguing, on a wind instrument. On the whole, each answer should be adapted to be idiomatic for the new instrument. For example, an arpeggio played on a single-line instrument (such as a clarinet) could be answered either with an arpeggio or a with block chord (or both) on the piano. A singer might “convert” staccato or tenuto articulations on an instrument to incisive syllables or long vowels, respectively. Do not overthink your response! There is no need to plan out your answer meticulously. Simply listen to your received recording as few or as many times as you wish, in order to decide what you will do, and then record your response. The response can be improvised, semi-improvised, or fully sketched out. There is no minimum or maximum duration for each recording. I anticipate that 30-60 seconds will be a typical range, but this will be up to each individual. If there is anything you would like to do in your recording that you are not sure about, and that isn’t covered in the guidelines above, just go for it! As in a game of Telephone, the different iterations and variations of the original material will inevitably take some unpredictable twists and turns. There is no predetermined “final destination,” so let your own voice shine through.
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Sarah Wald
Once you have finished your recording, please send the audio file, these instructions, and the list of players to the next person on the list and Cc me. Please DO NOT send the recording you received. Each performer on the list should only hear what the last person did, like in a game of Telephone. If you sketched out your response for yourself to play from, please also DO NOT send this to the next player. Responses should be generated by ear.
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