Three Contraptions (2017), for winds & brass in 10 parts, plus percussion

Some years ago, in one of the fine student Showcases given regularly at the FAC, I witnessed a fascinating improvisational exercise demonstrated by a theater class.  The exercises were called “Breathing Machines.”  Each began with a single student appearing on stage who would assume an interesting, unorthodox posture; this position would include some slight, repetitive motion that allowed the performer to remain in place, as well as some brief, metrical sound that coincided with the motion.  After a few seconds, another student would appear and improvise their own posture, motion and sound, complimentary and in close physical proximity to the first performer.  After 4 or 5 performers had joined the group, an amazing human contraption had formed with a complex web of motions and sounds in counterpoint.  Clearly this was designed to train the participants to be aware of their fellow performers and to shape their own performances in ways that make sense in the whole. 

And so it with these pieces.  Virtually every note is a solo, with instruments sounding one or two notes in the silences of the others most of the time.  There a few tunes here and there, but by and large the fun is in the rather mechanical web of activity that is the sum of the various curt little gestures.  To a limited degree, the titles refer to the character of the gestures and the relationships between them, but really they are just whimsical names for some make-believe machines that I thought might sound like this.  And – importantly – I imagine these to be contraptions cobbled together by humans – perhaps even the complex societal “contraptions” formed by humans each playing a part.

$40 for score, parts, and demo in this original instrumentation. If you’d like a transcription, write to me at newertunes@hotmail.com before ordering and list your instrumentation; I will quote a very moderate charge for your transcription. Order here.

I. Whizgadoozler (about 4:45) Simply a quirky, clanking, stuttering machine.

II. Echopanalifter (about 4:50) Many lines are imitated at very short delays (echo-); virtually all (-pan-) melodic bits trend upward (a-lifter).

III. Invertapeater (about 4:30) Motives are repeated immediately in inversion throughout.