|
 |
|
 |
|
|
|
| The title of Chicken Pull comes from a late winter ceremony at the Keres pueblo of Santo Domingo in north-central New Mexico, which is described by Vincent Scully in his book Pueblo: Mountain Village Dance (Viking, 1975), pp.206-7:"...some men hoist up two poles out near of the center of the course where the footraces were run. A rope is tied between them and a chicken slung by the feet down to that. All the horsemen ride around it in a tight catenary curve...and they ride hard, one after the other and around again, under the rope trying to grab the chicken, which the men at the vertical poles twitch out of the way if they can. But they get him eventually, in terrible pulls, riding like hell, one hand stretched high. It is death -- an execution." The form of the mirroring clarinet parts of Chicken Pull seems at first quite symmetrical with its butterfly shape of 36. 0f the total 72 clarinet parts of the piece on the right echoing at very close time intervals the opening 36 on the left. However, with each new episode of the piece, the reflections over the imaginary axis of symmetry become more and more irregular, and – like the riders in Scully's description -- start veering away in centrifugal circular patterns from the center (the chicken/the opening sonorities) as the strands of the piece unravel and wind down. The final whistling is just a shadow or memory of the more corporeal sound preceding it. |
CD: 7 Pieces by Eric Richards
Credits: Molly Paccione - clarinet, Eric Richards - whistling |
| |
 |
|
 |
|
|
|
| "The Unravelling of the Field” is conceived of as one unwinding scroll divided for convention's--and printing's--sake into four individual frames. As the solo pianist proceeds with the piece as it unfolds from the beginning he may choose to go on to the next page, repeat the page he is on, or go back to earlier pages and continue the process. Any pattern may be followed, and the piece may be any length; the per- former may return to the beginning of the piece after he reaches the end or close to the end and begin the whole cycle again--but presumably with a different pattern of successive events, dynamics--and even the actual notes that he is able to "grab" from the four overlapping temporal layers that constitute the piece. Despite the apparent complexity of its notation, the piece should have the sweep and freedom of an old Border Ballad: indeed, the piece is dedicated to Robert Duncan, and its form is reminiscent of Duncan's great ballad on the death of his mother, “My Mother Would Be A Falconress”. This performance was recorded by Paul Marquardt of the Thump piano duo for their CD, THUMPMUSIC, which is available through Frog Peak Music or Amazon.com. |
CD: Seven Pieces by Eric Richards, Thump Piano Duo
Label: Frog Peak Music
Credits: Paul Marquardt - piano |
| |
|
|
 |
|
|
|
| The Consent of Sound and Meaning is for 10 double basses and 7 trumpets and is very much a "studio" piece with the different parts being overdubbed and the actual taped performance giving the illusion of one great, pulsating instrument, bifurcated into two halves or cross-sections to the right and left of the listening space, and connected--as if through a greatly extended narrow sounding board--by two transverse axes, transmitting moving parts back-and-forth across the center of the audience from side to side. The string bass texture is differentiated into different layers of sound ranging from high, clearly defined pitches to lower, more opaque and indistinct ones creating a sort of aural landscape in which sound "objects" come in-and-out of view much as landmarks viewed at different distances from a moving vehicle in an American Western landscape can be fuzzy and indistinct at one moment, and then come sharply into view at the next. The 7 trumpets that enter in the middle of the piece operate on their own sonic plane and the brief time that they overlap with the string parts is the real emotional fulcrum of the piece. |
CD: 7 Pieces by Eric Richards
Credits: Michael Willens - double bass, Frank Hosticka - trumpet |
| |
Copyright notice. All material on MP3.com is protected by copyright law and by international treaties. You may download this material and make reasonable number of copies of this material only for your own personal use. You may not otherwise reproduce, distribute, publicly perform, publicly display, or create derivative works of this material, unless authorized by the appropriate copyright owner(s).
|
|
need help playing tracks?
lo fi play
hi fi play
download
email track to a friend
view track info