- Journeymusic (1981)
-
Eleanor Hovda
for flute, clarinet in Bb, violin, contrabass, piano, and percussion
ca. 8'00"
Commisioned by the Jerome Foundation for the Orchestra of Our Time, Joel Thome, music director
Click here to view the performance notes.
- Firefall (1974)
-
Eleanor Hovda
for flute, voice, double bass, and dancer
- Cheetah (1992)
-
Eleanor Hovda
for flute, oboe, Bb clarinet, bassoon, viola, electric bass, percussion
Cheetah is written for Relache, and was completed on December 24, 1992. I have used the image of cheetahs for several reasons. I wanted to work with extremes of energy (from relaxed to intense-but-inward to most extroverted, flung energy). I also wanted to work with the idea of excavating sounds from the bone and sinew of acoustic instruments: the expansions of single pitches, either fingered or bowed, which can happen when extremes of breath control, additions of auxillary keys and alternative fingerings (winds) and larger spectra of bowing techniques and placements (strings) are used. Cheetahs are said to be the fastest animals on earth when they run, but their sprints are very short. The rest of the time they spend recovering from their runs or preparing for the next dash by scoping out the landscape with intense focus, from stationary positions or by prowling. I imagine an enormous amount of energy and motion in the stillness flowing from them during these periods of intense focus.
- Borealis Music (1987)
-
Eleanor Hovda
for flute, oboe, bassoon, piano
ca. 10'30"
For the Sylmar Chamber Ensemble
Commissioned by the MCF/CCP Program funded by the Jerome Foundation
Borealis Music suggests energy which moves but doesn't go anywhere. The Aurora Borealis is seen as curtains or ribbons of active energy, but not a travelling form. There is also the perception of the aurora being a series of super-imposed "after-images" – the idea that what is seen is the resultant of a field of reflected/refracted electrical impulses.
The energy fields are achieved by introspective probings of the "sound around the sound" of strings and winds. Sonic ribbons emerge, and lengths of time taken to excavate and articulate resonance fields.
An important aspect of performance is to be able to work with very soft dynamic levels with intense concentration and energy. A theatrical metaphor is the Noh drama of Japan, where the slow unfolding of infinitesimally distilled material serves to heighten and sustain focus and attention.
- Air Moment (1973)
-
Eleanor Hovda
for 11 to 33 flutes
This piece was commissioned by the NY Flute Club in 1973 for a concert in honor of Otto Luening. Since the Flute Club had scheduled Luening's "38 flutes" piece, which is very much a pitch/pulse canon, I decided to enlarge on that area that had been fascinating to me for some time: the acoustic articulation of "the sound around the sound." Not only would this make a nice contrast to Mr. Luening's wonderful piece, but would allow me to work in some directions that had been intriguing me. David Gilbert, flutist and inspiration for many of the techniques, conducted.
Essentially, the piece is played from full score. There are 11 distinct parts, and these parts can be doubled/tripled, etc. up to probably not more than 44 total players. However, anyone who wants to try 11 on each part for a total of 121 is welcome to try!
At no time, in this piece, is an "out and out pitch" blown. The piece is built on the idea of amplyfying breath resonances caused by vowel and consonant sounds plus variation of dynamics, and use of fluttertongue. The sole instance of "almost clear pitch" is the "dove sound" sections where "subtone" blowing and use of trill keys produces a hollow, reedy, "dove-like sound" (George Crumb is responsible for calling these sounds "dove sounds").
Timing is by breathflow and the process of proceeding through the piece. The conductor is involved to choosing when to make changes and for engendering "connectedness" amongst the ensemble.
- Onyx (1991)
-
Eleanor Hovda
for chamber orchestra
ca. 13'45"
This piece was commissioned by the Lake Superior Chamber Orchestra.
This project was supported in part through funding from the Minnesota State Arts Board and the National Endowment for the Arts.
Click here to view the score with composer's notes.
Click here to view the score with conductor's notes.
- The Lion's Head (1971)
-
Eleanor Hovda
for flute, B-flat clarinet, violin, and cello
- Hollows (1985)
-
Eleanor Hovda
for flute, oboe, bassoon, violin, and cello
For the Sylmar Chamber Ensemble, with gratitude to the McKnight Foundation
This piece is a very introspective probing of "the secret life" of the winds and strings. It resonates hollow places and takes long lengths of time to excavate and articulate the "sound around the sound."
- Curves (1988)
-
Eleanor Hovda
for flute, clarinet, violin, and cello
- Composition for Solo Flute
-
Eleanor Hovda
for solo flute
- Breathing (1983)
-
Eleanor Hovda
for nine flutes
ca. 13'30"
Click here to listen to a recording.
- Breath Dancing (1987)
-
Eleanor Hovda
for solo flute
- De Laguna (1991)
-
Mercedes Otero
for mezzo soprano, flute, oboe, harp, and contrabass
ca. 16'15"
The poems used in “De Laguna” are from the book Laguna, by Alberto Arvelo Ramos, a contemporary Venezuelan poet. Translations by Mercedes Otero.
- Devil's Punchbowl (1993)
-
Lois V Vierk
for orchestra
ca. 11'30"
This piece was inspired by the twisted sandstone canyon in the southern California high desert in Angeles National Park called "Devil's Punchbowl". At this exquisite site you are always aware of both extreme beauty and also danger. Descending into the canyon the trail is rugged, rocky, and treacherous, and the heat is scorching. But rising up from the deep gorge are steep, magnificent mountains with their cold streams and sweet-smelling pine trees. The vistas are grand. Far in the distance, soft shapes and hues of the landscape melt into one another.
Devil's Punchbowl unfolds slowly. Musical materials are constantly developed, pushing the work forward from a relatively simple beginning to its dynamic and colorful climax. The piece opens with languorous brass slides downward. String phrases answer the brass, and woodwinds add color and wisps of melody. Gradually the strings begin their long ascending glissando, sweeping the woodwinds up to their highest register, ending the first section.
Immediately strings and low woodwinds enter with agitated multi-color, ever-changing trills and tremolos. Various instruments combine to form sinewy melodic shapes which creep slowly upward. Percussion becomes more pronounced. Brass adds rhythm and harmony. Each phrase builds on the one before as, little by little, the music becomes faster, louder, and rhythmically emphatic. Trombones and celli playing fortissimo glissandi in the lowest register propel the piece to its full orchestral climax. After the high energy of the climax the music returns briefly to the lyrical mood of the opening, ending gently.
Devil's Punchbowl was commissioned by the Bang On A Can Festival and the Roanoke Symphony Orchestra. The commissioning of this work was made possible by a grant from the Meet The Composer/Reader's Digest Commissioning Program, in partnership with the National Endowment for the Arts and the Lila Wallace-Reader's Digest Fund.
The recording of Devil's Punchbowl is of the premiere, given by Victoria Bond conducting the Roanoke Symphony Orchestra on March 21, 1994. They performed the piece beautifully.
Below are two versions of the score. First is the final version, incorporating several sets of edits to the orchestration made after the premiere and over subsequent years, and which is dated 2009. The major changes to orchestration, emphasizing an expanded role for trombones, etc., are marked above the staves of the score.
The second is the original score as used by Victoria Bond in 1994 (with numerous indications marked for my first set of edits).
Click here to view the revised score and listen to the recording.
Click here to view the original score and listen to the recording.
- Io (1999)
-
Lois V Vierk
for flute, electric guitar, and marimba
ca. 10'09"
Io (1999) features virtuoso performances on amplified flute, amplified marimba, and electric guitar. After an introductory section, a tumultuous, high energy middle section begins with short, dynamic phrases. As the work progresses, each phrase develops materials from the one before, gradually producing longer and longer phrases, and dense textures of interlocking tremolos and glissandi, with sharply articulated sounds in all instruments. A lyrical statement ends the piece.
The work is titled after Jupiter's innermost moon, which in turn is named for the mythological beautiful maiden Io, beloved of Zeus but tormented by Zeus' wife, Hera. The moon Io was discovered by Galileo in 1610. In the 1970's it was discovered to have over 100 active volcanoes, the only known volcanoes outside the earth. At times the volcanoes shoot huges plumes of sulfur up to 300 kilometers into the sky. Io is caught in a gravitational tug of war. It is periodically nudged out of regular orbit by two nearby moons, Europa and Ganymede, then pulled back by the massive gravitational field of Jupiter. Io is constantly squeezed and distorted, like a rubber ball held in the hand. The friction produced by this action produces enormous heat – enough to melt the rock deep within and cause the great volcanoes and lava flow.
This piece was commissioned by Ensemble L'ART POUR L'ART of Hamburg, Germany. It was recorded on flutist Margaret Lancaster's CD "Io" on New World Records.
Recording is by:
Margaret Lancaster, flute
Larry Polansky, electric guitar
Matthew Gold, marimba
from CD:
New World Records 82720 "Io - Margaret Lancaster, flutes"
Click here to view the CD on New World Records.
Click here to view the score and listen to the music.
Click here to download all performance materials.
- Timberline (1991)
-
Lois V Vierk
for piano/synthesizer, flute, clarinet, bassoon, viola, contrabass, and percussion
ca. 16'14"
Hiking a trail to high altitudes takes you through an ever changing landscape. The dark closeness of the forest gradually gives way to increasing spaciousness. Light shimmers in as hints of the grandeur ahead draw you up the mountain. Arriving at the timberline and then at the mountain top gives you a spectacular view of the land below and the sky all around you.
This work is in two continuous sections. The first section begins with winds and strings in the mid range, playing held notes and slow glissandi. Simple grace notes are added. Little by little a dense texture is built as grace notes are transformed into ascending pentatonic scale passages in winds and strings. This is overlaid contrapuntally with a piano texture of ornate grace notes, tremolos and trills, gradually moving up over the full range of the keyboard. Cymbals roll at the climax.
The second section begins under the ringing cymbals with slow, open fifths in the lowest register of the winds and strings. The sounds are dark and languid, with many sliding tones. Very gradually more percussive sounds are added. Phrases are becoming shorter, notes are getting faster, shifting from whole notes to half notes to quarters. The piano begins a bright and rhythmic punctuation of the phrase, introducing 16th notes. The development of this rhythmic and harmonic figure gradually moves the piece to its climactic conclusion. Finally all the instruments combine to form one texture--dynamic, rhythmic, covering the entire instrumental range.
Timberline was commissioned for the Relâche Ensemble of Philadelphia by Kobrand, Inc., importer of Champagne Taittinger.
A CD recording was released on New World Records -- Lois V Vierk: Words Fail Me, New World 80766.
Recording is by the Relâche Ensemble of Philadelphia, conducted by Lloyd Shorter, from CD:
New World Records 80766 "Lois V Vierk: Words Fail Me"
Click here to view the CD on New World Records.
Click here to view the score and listen to the recording.