Eugene, --- On Tue, 1/10/12, EUGENE BRAIG IV <[email protected]> wrote:
> In the song cycle "Ancient > Voices of Children", George Crumb asks > the mandolin be played with a > metal paper clip in stead of a plectrum > of more typical material: > plastics, tortoiseshell, etc. His > intent was to generate as sharply > metallic a sound as possible. Getting off topic here, but it's fun anyway. Crumb is a very interesting composer with an obsession for timbre and special effects. In "Songs, Drones and Refrains of Death," he calls outrageous techniques, like calling for the percussionist to beat on the strings of both the electric guitar and the acoustic bass with soft mallets. At various points, all of the instrumentalists have to whisper, speak, sing, hum and shout. The electric guitarist also has to double on jaw harp. At one point, the singer, using a megaphone, must vocalize into a piano while the pianist depresses the pedal, creating sympathetic resonance. The pianist also doubles on amplified harpsichord. I performed this piece a few times. Quite a lot of fun. There is a whole school of mostly Eastern European composers active after WWII that make much use of similar effects. The label that has been applied to them is "sonorist". Zbigniew Granat, my colleague at Nazareth College where I teach, is an expert in the study of these composers. Chris Christopher Wilke D.M.A. Lutenist, Guitarist and Composer www.christopherwilke.com To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
