Sub Aerial
for 2 percussionists.
" In Hope’s Sub Aerial the use of graphic scores is not always about introducing greater uncertainty and scope for interpretation into a work, but is a way of creating scores that demand the same fidelity from the performer as any notated score". Mathew Lorenzon, Partial Durations.
PROGRAM NOTE
The piece draws from an image found in an old magazine as part of an advertisement for a grounded aerial. The composition uses very soft sounds and radio static to create an ethereal sound world of transmission. The score is a series of individual designs that are read as gestures and tracings, and each has its own associated dynamics and durations. The shuffling and timing of each card is automated in the Decibel ScorePlayer in the iPad and a short demonstration of how the work looks in the player is on the right.
NOTE TO PERFORMERS
The majority of my compositions use scores that are read on an iPad tablet computer, using the Decibel ScorePlayer, an application available on the App Store . Any fixed media is embedded in the score, and some feature automated functions. In the case of ensemble works, multiple iPads can be networked on a LAN or over the Internet so parts can be read in a synchronised way. You should upload the score file (ending with.dsz) to your iPad from your computer via AirDrop on an Apple, or cable from a PC. Instructions on how to do this and using the Decibel ScorePlayer, more generally are included in the Application, which ships with five other scores.
Thus my works have different versions of the score, as you may see above. A PDF/PNG file of the score ‘image’, a DSZ file to upload onto the iPad for performance, and for some less complex scores, a video version. Hardcopies are also available from my publisher. You can find out more about the Decibel ScorePlayer, and how to make your own scores for it, here.
PERFORMANCES
Premiered April 1 2015, Melbourne, Victoria by the Sound Collectors.
