higgins ten ways of looking at a bird
DESCRIPTION
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Produced at Open Studio in Rhinebeck, N.Y., a non-profit facility for individual artists & independent publishers, funded in part by grants from the National Endowment for the Arts & the New York State Council on the Arts.
Copyright © 1981 by Richard C. Higgins. All rights reserved.
Manufactured in the United States of America.
ISBN 0-914162-55-1 applies to this book.
2
Instructions for Performance
This piece is to be played on violin and harp-
sichord; an organ or chimes could be substituted
for the harpsichord, but if an organ is used, only
short sounds should be produced and these in a
variety of timbres.
There are ten movements, each lasting eighty
seconds. Instructions for playing the harpsichord
part are printed on page 15.
The rules for playing the violin part (printed
on pages 5 through 14) are as follows:
1) Note that each movement is printed on a
separate page, each consists of ten staves printed
over a photograph, and each has an array of notes
listed at the top of the page.
3
2) This array is a gamut. Each movement uses
only the tones given in its gamut; these may be
transposed up or down an octave, but usually are
played as written. The tones may be played in any
order, any sequence. Patterns may be developed —
one per line— or they may be avoided. Any
number of notes may be played in each line, but —
3) only as suggested by the photograph. The
violinist produces timbres, densities, and so on,
according to any consistent and personal criteria.
Volumes are determined in the same way, as are
the use of mutes, special bowing techniques and
the degrees or absence of vibrato. Each line lasts
about eight seconds, and the lines and movements
are played in the sequence given.
4) Each movement should sound quite different
from each other movement, bounded only by what
is suggested by the photograph. One movement
might be quite dense and fast, another quite slow
and solemn, another quite light. Each movement
should employ its own system. Thus the degree of
darkness in one photograph might determine lots of
bow action in one movement, deep pitches in
another, and soft rich timbres in a third, etc. Or
loudness might be determined in some movement
by subject matter, such as the distance in a given
line to the male figure as the violinist's eye travels
left to right along each line— maximum volume
4
when playing over the figure, minimum when
playing at the ends of the line away from the
figure. However, the systems may be repeated from
performance to performance; there is no need to
work up a new set of systems for each separate
performance situation.
There should be about ten seconds of silence
between each movement.
Barrytown, New York
August 18, 1980
First Movement
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Fourth Movement
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^ J I, J i?lJ^p!;p Eighth Movement
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12 13
15
Harpsichord Instructions
The harpsichord part is to vary from movement to
movement, performance to performance.
The harpsichordist plays twenty sounds in each of the ten
movements. These may come together or they may come
quite separately, though this latter is mostly preferable. They
should surprise the violinist, both in timbre, in harmonic
texture and in timing. They may be diatonic, chromatic or
dissonant, they may or may not form patterns, progressions,
melodies or rhythms. Most of the sounds should be relatively
loud. But they should be inconsistent. The sounds should be
sounds associated with traditional music, i.e., the musician
should not slap or scrape the side of the instrument, for
example.
If another instrument than a harpsichord is used, maximum
variety should be a prime objective. For instance, a piano,
organ, percussion, carillon or synthesizer would all be suitable
substitutes, whereas a clarinet would not.
$10.00 ISBN 0-914162-55-1
Other musical publications by Dick Higgins
include:
Piano Album: Short Piano Pieces, 1962-
1984; $10.00
TWenty-Six Mountains for Mewing the
Sunset From
(for three dancers, four singers, two
percussionists, piano, prepared
piano, two violins and cello), $12.00
Please write for our complete catalog:
Printed Editions
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Station Hill Road
Barrytown, New York 12507