For 3 Instrumentalists, Summer 2009.
Recordings:
Recording released on Stasisfield.
Score:
Performance Note:
Fission consists of three pages, one for each performer. If a different number of performers is available, use a configuration of pages which allows for maximum variety of pages being played at once. Other configurations are possible, such as a duet in which both performers read the same pages at the same time, although this may have unforeseen consequences.
All performers should start at approximately the same time, reading from left to right. Pitches and durations are given in a proportional format (with a reference line for pitch), and performers should interpret accordingly. There is no set time-scale, though experience proves that an upbeat performance will be more successful than one at a slower pace. At the beginning and distributed throughout the gestures are square boxes containing one or more circles. The location of the circle(s) indicates an event which the player should listen for before beginning their next gesture. The beginning of the next gesture should correspond as closely as possible with the ending of the previous, listened-for, gesture.
Circle placement is read as follows: the placement left to right inside the box indicates duration of the event, left being a short event, right being a long event. Bottom to top indicates pitch, low to high. For example, a circle in the bottom left corner of a box indicates a short, low event, and a circle in the upper right corner indicates a high, long event.
Inevitably, there will come a situation in which all three performers are waiting for events which will not occur. This is the desired outcome of the piece, and should not be avoided or overcome through creative misinterpretation of heard events or environmental sounds. When this point is reached, the performers should continue sounding their current events until it is certain that the piece can progress no further, at least 30 seconds.
Performance History:
4.29.2010 – Lazers! @ Peck School of the Arts Recital Hall, Milwaukee, WI.
4.3.2010 @ Sugar Maple, Milwaukee, WI – with Lazers! (David Collins, Steve Schlei, Greg Surges)
Fission by Greg Surges is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.
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