Eleanor Hovda
for solo flute
Written for David Gilbert
Music from the Proclamation was composed in 1966 as the musical component of a play "The Proclamation" by Iva Martirano. The script called for a flutist, a man (mime), and a woman (actor). The Flute, played and acted by David Gilbert, presided over the flow of action between the Man and the Woman, and had continuous shifting role-involveent throughout the play. It was performed at the Roundhouse, in Urbana, Illinois. It was revised, in concert version, in 1968.
I had become interested in considerations of breathing with respect to sound production, energy shape composing, and timbral painting as well as to the problems of periodicity (a natural resultant of inhale/exhale cycles of wind and brass players and singers). The necessity of producing a long (ca. 25 minutes), evolving statement for the flute character provided a "psychological form," a theatrical context, within which some ways to foil periodicity in a flute solo could be developed and shaped.
David Gilbert, a flutist and composer, had already developed new techniques using inhale and exhale melodically, vowel and consonant sounds, and alternate methods of sound production to enlarge the timbral palette. These included "air" sounds, combinations of air/pitch, pitch color, and weight change by alternate fingerings, "chords," etc. The compositional availability of "air" sounds combined with vowel and consonant articulations (which can be produced during inhale as well as exhale cycles) served to free me from the inevitability of the "sound/take-a-breath, sound/take-a-breath...n" loop.
Factors governing the durational limits of inhales and exhales were explored. For example, the greater the "force" required to play an inhaled/exhaled segment, the shorter the possible duration of that segment. Parameters which combine to determine the total "force" include registral placement, dynamics, density (ex.: single pitches/"chords"; flute alone/flute with humming; method of sound production (modo ordinario, pitch, and "air" combinations); phonetic articulation (vowel and/or consonant sounds, simple or complex, such as Ho versus rtchu with a rolled r).
This piece has been a process, in three general stages: First, by developing sound materials from combinations of parameters which focused on extents of time, weights and energy, and flow shapes, I hoped to avoid the natural periodicity of inhale and exhale cycles. Second, the sound material took shape and life when molded within the theatrical context/content (psychological form) of the play. Third, the flute music was revised into a concert version wherein the interaction between the performer and the material became the event, and the "meaning" is a timbral/energy flow soundscan.
Click here to view the script.