Hellawell GROUND TRUTHING by ScoresOnDemand

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HELLAWELL

Ground Truthing

for Chamber Ensemble

Score and Parts

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PIERS HELLAWELL

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Ground Truthing

for Chamber Ensemble

EDITION

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INSTRUMENTATION

Flute (doubling Piccolo, Melodica) Clarinet in B- (doubling Bass Clarinet)

Violin

Cello

Piano

Conductor

Transposed Score

Duration: c. 14ʹ

Ground Truthing was commissioned by Hard Rain SoloistEnsemble with funds from the Arts Council of Northern Ireland, and was premiered by them, conducted by Sinéad Hayes, on 17th February 2019, in the Sonic Lab of The Queen’s University of Belfast.

PROGRAMME NOTE

Ground Truthing was commissioned by Hard Rain SoloistEnsemble with funds from the Arts Council of Northern Ireland, and was premiered by them on 17th February 2019, in the Harty Room of The Queen’s University of Belfast.

The work’s structure presents a meditation on the contemplation of material from different distances. We are all familiar with how a human figure, building or landscape changes in our perception if we view it from very far away, or from some way away, or when face-to-face. The three pieces of this set view a single musical terrain from these standpoints; the close-up view is the most detailed and thus the longest, while the distant view is a miniature. Between stands an intermediate view, at around 3.5 minutes. The ordering of the three views is ‘distant – intermediate – close’, descriptions which were in fact used initially as titles for the pieces, but removed before publication.

The process of gleaning empirical data from surface analysis is sometimes called ‘ground truthing’; my imagination supplements that close-up analysis with two more distant, views – less detailed but perhaps more sharply drawn. What is the effect of encountering the same musical landscape very close up, or from a distance? This concept unites a family of my recent works featuring ‘Russian Doll’ structures, multisized views of a single musical material; this in turn has evolved within my interest over three decades in the dramatic design of multi-movement works in many shapes and sizes.

The title is of course a pun, since the core musical material of all three pieces is a twopart ‘ground’, a recurrent set of chords that I term an Escalator Series (since its pitches move up a step each time). Probing the potential (or ‘truth’) latent in variation of these ground sets has been a key engine of musical development for me since 2003 – drawing on a technique that has strong overtones of Baroque structures such as chaconne and chorale variation.

Piers Hellawell

FLUTE

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Quarter tones are employed in movements ii and iii. Smaller tuning fluctuations are denoted by ‘o+o+o+’ over long notes. In movement iii, the melodica clusers from figure H all lie under the hand and can be approximated. Each chord is fixed, repeated by breaths; chords do not change locally.

CLARINET

In bars 3 and 36 of movement i, the overtones/octaves may vary, and need not be exactly reproduced. Quarter tones are employed in movements ii and iii. Smaller tuning fluctuations are denoted by ‘o+o+o+’ over long notes.

VIOLIN

Quarter tones are employed in movements i and iii. In b.2 of movement iii, col legno tratto uses angled bow to mix hair and wood. The F-sharp harmonic in b. 60 of movement iii is approximate, subject to widely varied intonation.

VIOLONCELLO

Quarter tones are employed in movements i, ii and iii. In b.3 of movement iii, col legno tratto uses angled bow to mix hair and wood. In bars 60–61 of movement iii, pizz. is beyond the bridge; string choice ad lib., but at least two pitches are needed. In bars 62–63 of movement iii, tremolo with the tuning fork should be beyond the bridge, using the C-string remnant.

PIANO

Materials required: Tuning fork, China Mug, Water-glass, Coloured Stickers, Spoon, Paris Goblet, Large Marble.

In movement i, lay the tuning fork over the lowest strings for the coda. Pitches are ad lib. according to range. In movements i (figure A) and ii (figure E), chordal passages should have the feeling of discrete backing for a jazz bass solo.

In bars 86–87 of movement ii, lay a mug or straight glass over the right-hand string segment, beyond the hammers. The vessel is held lightly in proximity to bounce of the hammers and produce a ‘twang’. In bars 88–90 of movement ii, catch a harmonic beyond the hammer by pressing the string soon after striking the key.

For movement iii, mark the strings or hammers on B-0 and C/G4 with colours in advance. In the first bar, lay the spoon on the lowest strings in order for it to bounce in the second bar when B-0 is struck. In the third bar, lay the mug or water-glass over the central string segment, against the hammers. Strike C/G then toggle the mug/glass left to right to produce after-sounds, akin to a wide vibrato. In bar 6, catch the harmonic beyond the hammer by pressing the string soon after the first G-; subsequent pitches are sounded by re-striking the G- with the finger on further nodes along the string –overtones are ad lib. In bar 8, hold the mug or glass lightly on the right-hand string segment against the hammers; allow it to ‘pin-ball’ away from the struck hammers of clustered notes, sounding strings. From bar 53, replace the mug or glass on the strings, held lightly against the right-hand hammers for given pitches. Remove before letter G; replace for the upbeat to letter H. From letter H to the end: place a large marble inside a Paris goblet set, on its side, upon the central strings. Under full pedal, set the wine glass rocking, continuing to activate the marble as needed.

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Place tuning-fork over lowest strings

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GroundTruthing

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*c.l.tratto,bowangledtoincludehair colleg.*

senzavib.

Stringstobepre-marked:Bb0,C/G4

tratto,bowangledtoincludehair colleg.* ?

playC/Gsultasto:glassormug restsonpre-markedC,Gstrings

RestspoononlowBbbeyondhammers,tobounceadlib.

Decoratew.alternativefingerings:

wavyline:togglemug/glassL<>Ron stringimmediatelyafterstrikingC/G

toRHsegment, touchinghammers:

HarmonicsonGbstring (stopstringjustbeyondhammer; movefingerawaydownthestring) (Hammer'fires'mug/glassawayoverstrings.Allowallsounds(frameetc)...)

(tuningfluctuationsadlib.wheremarked+/o)

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Replacemug/glassintoupperstrings: holdglasslightlyagainstdamperswLH:

NB:Flourishes49-53aroundasmallgroupofpitches areadlib.;restrictingto'glass-affected'pitchesismore importantthangivingtheexactnotatedform

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[highviolin-continuesacrosstodown-beatofH]

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(OscillateartificialharmonicaroundFsharp,likeaveryexaggeratedvibrato, approximatelyintheprecedingquintupletrhythm-adlib.)

pizz.beyondbridge,stringsadlib. Rhythmapprox.asgiven:

replacemug/glassagainstupperstrings(seeb.53): holdlooselyinplaceagainstdamperswLH

Melodica:(clustersare simultaneouschords, despite'split'look) (tongueeachpulsation, sustainingbreath;uneven durationsisgood)

(fadealwaysasslowand controlledaspossible)

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Piers Hellawell

Piers Hellawell (b. 1956) has worked with leading artists such as the LSO, Schubert Ensemble, Dame Evelyn Glennie and the Hilliard Ensemble, who toured his Hilliard Songbook pieces worldwide. Orchestral works include Cors de chasse (for Håkan Hardenberger, Jonas Bylund and the Philharmonia Orchestra) and the BBC commission Dogs and Wolves (2006), while Syzygy was premiered in 2013 by the Stockholm Chamber Brass/Swedish Chamber Orchestra. 2016 saw Hellawell’s Wild Flow commissioned for the BBC Proms, and a UK tour of Up by the Roots – a collaboration with poet Sinéad Morrissey – as well as a composer feature at Detroit’s Great Lakes Festival. Hellawell has been Professor of Composition at Queen’s University of Belfast since 2002, and has spoken widely on issues of music and cultural ownership as Gresham Professor of Music in London, 2000–2003.

Piers Hellawell (*1956) hat mit vielen namhaften Künstlern und Ensembles zusammengearbeitet, u.a. mit dem London Symphony Orchestra, dem Schubert Ensemble, Evelyn Glennie und dem Hilliard Ensemble, das seinem Hilliard Songbook zu internationaler Bekanntheit verhalf. Zu Hellawells Orchesterwerken zählen Cors de chasse (für Håkan Hardenberger, Jonas Bylund und das Philharmonia Orchestra), das BBC-Auftragswerk Dogs and Wolves (2006) sowie Syzygy, das 2013 von Stockholm Chamber Brass und dem Swedish Chamber Orchestra uraufgeführt wurde. 2016 entstanden Wild Flow für die BBC Proms sowie Up by the Roots – ein Gemeinschaftsprojekt mit der Dichterin Sinéad Morrissey, das bei Konzerten in ganz Großbritannien und Nordirland zur Aufführung kam. Im gleichen Jahr bildete sein Schaffen einen Schwerpunkt des Great Lakes Festival in Detroit. Hellawell ist seit 2002 Professor an der Queen’s University in Belfast. Von 2000 bis 2003 hatte er die Londoner Gresham-Professur für Musik inne und setzte sich bei seinen Vorträgen mit Fragen des kulturellen Eigentums in der Musik auseinander.

The Peters Contemporary Chamber Series offers the opportunity to discover new works to programme, study and play. Representing the full breadth of our library of modern chamber music, this curated series of performance materials ranges from established repertoire to pieces recently premiered.

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