Hellawell SOUND CARVINGS, STRANGE TRYST

Version

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HELLAWELL

Sound Carvings, Strange Tryst

for Piano, Double Bass and Percussion

Score

ISSUU Version

For perusal only

ISSUU Version For perusal only

PIERS HELLAWELL

Sound Carvings, Strange Tryst

for Piano, Double Bass and Percussion

Score

EIGENTUM DES VERLEGERS ALLE RECHTE VORBEHALTEN ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

PETERS EDITION LTD

ISSUU Version For perusal only

Instrumentation

Piano

Double Bass

Percussion (Kit)

Duration: 10 mins approx.

Note

This collaboration arose out of a background of mutual listening and musical sympathy between me, improvising trio Bourne Davis Kane and Brian Carson of Moving On Music. I had long admired the trio’s remarkable ability to produce sustained, structured pieces of music that expressed both coherence and the immediacy of surprise; the purposeful course of their live pieces seemed almost to render my own notion of composition – the painstaking deployment of events – redundant, so confident are their group improvisations. In particular, both parties felt that our respective worlds of musical material enjoyed some overlapping ‘feel’, and so this collaboration was born – the Strange Tryst of the title – with the intercession of Moving On Music and the support of the PRS Foundation for Music’s New Music Biennial commissions.

There are two main movements (approximately ‘fast’ and ‘slow’) preceded and followed by brief book-end tableaux built upon more experimental sounds. My 25-year-old series of Sound Carvings pieces offers various structures featuring the relationship of extended pieces to shorter interludes, and so this work is characteristic in form, if not in instrumentation. It might be imagined that the big issue for a ‘classical’ composer and ‘jazz’ ensemble would be the divergent nature of their materials, but I had no real difficulty in framing ideas attractive to me that felt also suited to the Trio. The collaborative process in fact centred upon BDK’s ‘adaptation’ of materials from my written originals, which became starting-points for treatments more idiomatic to them; while some of the fully-notated materials are heard as written, others quickly underwent transformation – and will continue to do so. The first of the main pieces was actually edited by Dave Kane into a ‘remix’ version; this is the version performed by BDK. The second piece has only one notated form but has taken some new directions in performance, using salient ideas from a notated score that was only ever intended as a starting-point.

Sound Carvings, Strange Tryst was commissioned by Moving On Music with funding from PRS for Music Foundation’s New Music Biennial 2014, in partnership with Creative Scotland, Arts Council England and British Council and in collaboration with BBC Radio 3, NMC Recordings, Southbank Centre and Glasgow UNESCO City of Music.

Additional support has been given by John S. Cohen Foundation, Arts Council of Wales, Arts Council of Northern Ireland, Incorporated Society of Musicians, The Bliss Trust, The Finzi Trust and Hope Scott Trust.

First performance on 29 March 2014 at the Metropolitan Arts Centre, Belfast by BOURNE DAVIS KANE, during the Moving On Music’s ‘Brilliant Corners’ Festival.

This score reflects the state of editorial work and correction as at May 2014.

ISSUU Version For perusal only

Sound Carvings, Strange Tryst

Piers Hellawell

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with hands raised above head)

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Temple-block (dry, wooden):

continue 1'00" ad lib. as in the following:

continue 1'00" ad lib. as in the following:

continue 1'00" ad lib. as in the following:

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Standard fills for these few bars

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etc

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Cymbal, open (o)/stopped

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(Block/ BDrum:)

Cymbal:

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CONTINUE

siren

CONTINUE

CONTINUE

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GONG wail: (stick end pushed on surface of tam-tam)

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Cymbal, soft sticks

(white-note gliss.)

Chinese-style tam-tam

Skin bend with Stick: arco ord. molto rubato pizz. arco pizz.

* These fragments should form the basis of arabesques, becoming gradually more ornate,

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Water-jar marble rattle (small):

(cresc. involves faster stirringvary pace always)

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e = 120

marble jar water-rattle (large): rapid stirring...

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col legno

(stand up)

(LH ‘pull off’ and pluck of A string, which is only struck by bow for Cs)

(shuffle:

– you’ll know! but I don’t) col legno/LH (’pull off’ A)

(take sticks)

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cymbal ? ‘stopped’ with L.H.:

pizz.

(play high on piano if TP not available)

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legno

Diamond: 3rd finger ‘hammer on’ 1/4 tone above col legno F

(cymbal, ‘stopped’ with L.H.:) pizz.

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(kit: hi-hat, snare, bass)

subito q. = 96

(rim) (hi-hat) p sim.

col leg.

* see H: ‘hammer on’ A (open G struck col leg.) p *

subito q. = 96

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subito q. = 96

Tremolo – sticks ‘scissored’ either side of closed hi-hat)

High-hat:

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A as at letter J)

96

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Photo © Gerry Hellawell

Piers Hellawell

Piers Hellawell (b. 1956) has worked with the Schubert Ensemble of london, Hilliard Ensemble, RTÉ Vanbrugh Quartet and BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, for whom he wrote Dogs and Wolves (2006), among others worldwide. works include: Cors de chasse, a concerto commissioned for Håkan Hardenberger (trumpet) and Jonas Bylund (trombone) by the Philharmonia Orchestra; Degrees of Separation, commissioned for the opening of The Sage Gateshead (2004); and Syzygy, premiered in Sweden by Swedish Chamber Orchestra and Stockholm Chamber Brass in 2013. More recent collaborators include Paul watkins (cello), who premiered atria in 2013, and Fenella Humphreys (violin), for her ‘Bach to the Future’ project. Hellawell is currently Professor of Composition at The Queen’s University of Belfast.

Piers Hellawell (*1956) hat mit vielen internationalen Ensembles zusammengearbeitet, darunter das Schubert Ensemble of london, das Hilliard Ensemble, das RTÉ Vanbrugh Quartet sowie das BBC Scottish Orchestra, für das er Dogs and wolves (2006) schrieb. Daneben entstanden Cors de chasse – ein Konzert für Håkan Hardenberger (Trompete) und Jonas Bylund (Posaune) im auftrag des Philharmonia Orchestra –, Degrees of Separation zur Eröffnung des Kulturzentrums The Sage im englischen Gateshead sowie Syzygy, das 2013 in Schweden vom Schwedischen Kammerorchester zusammen mit Stockholm Chamber Brass uraufgeführt wurde. In jüngster Zeit folgten atria (uraufgeführt 2013) für den Cellisten Paul watkins sowie ein Beitrag zum Projekt „Bach to the Future“ für die Geigerin Fenella Humphreys. Piers Hellawell ist Professor für Komposition an der Queen’s University Belfast.