The Drift
A composition by Cat Hope for 2 Contra bass clarinets, viola, percussion and electronics.
[clarinet 1 and 2 with sway wearable, viola and percussion with tensile wearable]
(2022)
This piece is designed to be played by performers wearing wearable devices that control the score via the Internet in remote locatoins. The score is proportional, with the highest point of the vertical axis being the highest pitch reference, the bottom being the lowest pitch reference. The score should be read in the Decibel ScorePlayer application with the relevant Max patch (attatched here), which enables the interpretation of the wearable data, and its influence on the score.
THE SCORE Line thickness indicates dynamic (should be very soft as a starting point). Choose your own pitches, avoiding the tempered scale where possible, but be mindful of the pitch relationships in the score, and your own parts. A dotted line is provided across the length of the score. This indicates your middle range. Acoustic instruments should not be amplified.
TIMBRAL SCALE: The Yellow playhead indicates timbre – higher on the score is denser, complex – lower is thinner, more airy. Apply as your part passes this playhead. ELECTRONICS The two contrabass clarinets should be live sampled. The sounds should be filtered/modified by the data generated by the tensile wearables on percussion and viola, and manipulated in as lower range as possible. ‘Playback points’ and their durations are noted with vertical dashed lines in the colour of the sampled instrument – this attempts to highlight the best movement moments to be captured in the percussion and viola. Follow the shapes /dynamics of the lines as much as possible, and only play sound where marked PERCUSSION Large circles are tam tam or cymbal strikes. Use different tam tams/gongs/cymbals,crotale for the range of timbres, with at least 6 different sounds.
This piece was made possible as part of the Interwoven Sound Spaces project. Thank you to Federico Visi and Aaron Wyatt for their assistance.
Cat Hope October 2022
Premiere: Acusmicum (Pitea, Sweden) and UdK Auditorium (Berlin, Germany) December 2016
You can see a documentary about the Interwoven Sound Spaces concerts here
See the Berlin performance here.
