Lois V Vierk

for orchestra

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 head 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 fro 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.

Click here to view the original score.

Lois V Vierk

for trumpet, cello, electric guitar, percussion, and piano/synthesizer

The title of this piece refers to the way in which astronomers and physicists measure movement and distances of distant celestial bodies. Briefly, characteristic lines and patterns made by different elements found in the star, etc., as observed through a spectrometer, are shifted in one direction or the other, towards the red or towards the blue end of the spectrum, depending on whether the body is moving away from us or towards us. This shift is called the "red shift".

When I wrote this work, I had the feeling of something of great mass and motion, far away, like a comet. It first seemed to move slowly, then gradually began accelerating toward us, faster, and faster, until finally at great speed I felt it sweeping down upon us, through us, and back out into the heavens.

During the 1980s and into the '90s I worked on developing principles of "Exponential Structure", in which elements such as time, harmonic motion, rhythmic and timbral development, sound density, etc. are controlled mathematically by exponential factors. These are not meant to be abstract constructs, but formal ideas based on the emotional thrust of the sounds and of the piece as a whole. The harmonic motion (movement from one pitch center to another), with its ever-decreasing time segments, is the clearest expression of Exponential Structure in this work. 

The original 1989 version of Red Shift (cello, electric guitar, percussion, synthesizer) was commissioned by the Experimental Intermedia Foundation with support from the Mary Flagler Cary Charitable Trust and is available on CD from Tzadik Records. In 1991 the piece was reorchestrated as Red Shift 4 for A Cloud Nine Consort and again for Ensemble Modern.

This recording does not totally match the score.  The recording is of a 1991 orchestration of this piece for the New York ensemble A Cloud Nine Consort, without cello.  Performers are:

Gary Trosclair, trumpet/synthesizer

Mark Stewart, electric guitar

Alan Moverman, synthesizer/piano

Tigger Benford, percussion

from CD:

New World Records NWCR646 "Bang On A Can Live, Vol. 2,  Emergency Music"

Click here to view the CD on New World Records.

Click here to view the score.

Lois V Vierk

for cello and piano

I wrote the melody for the first movement of Words Fail Me soon after September 11, 2001. My family and I had watched horrid events of that day "live" out of our apartment window, as thousands of people were murdered before out eyes and the World Trade Center was shot down. It was just across the Hudson River from where we live. It is an image I will never ever forget of smoke and dust drenching lower Manhattan in a horrible white cloud of debris that used to be a building vibrant with the energy of many living, breathing people.

After spending some weeks in a kind of daze I eventually picked up musical sketches I had been working on before 9/11. The materials in those sketches seemed so irrelevant that I threw them away. Then I wrote simple music. There is room for some improvisation. This is the first movement.

The second movement is made up of dense instrumental textures. It is dynamic and rythmic. It builds relatively simple phrases inot more complex statements, which develop into a high energy climax. This piece is meant as a tribute to the victims and to all the people of greater New York City, as well as to all people anywhere who survive tragedy and disaster and go on with life and great resolve.

Recording is by:

Theodore Mook, cello

Margaret Kampmeier, piano

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.

Lois V Vierk

for cello and marimba

The demon star is Algol in the constellation Perseus. Algol (literally "the demon's head") was observed for over a century to periodically get bright, then suddenly dim, but no one knew why. It wasn't until 1782 that the astronomer John Goodricke offered the explanation that Algol is really a pair of stars orbiting around a common center. Approximately every 69 hours the dimmer star passes in front of the brighter star, partially blocking its light, to someone watching on earth. About 100 years later Goodricke's explanation was confirmed by more sophisticated scientific observation. He had made the first identification of an "eclipsing binary" star. Astronomers now know of over 50 eclipsing binaries. This is the imagery that inspired my piece Demon Star.

This work sometimes brings one or the other of the instruments to the foreground, eclipsing the other, as it were, contrasting their sounds. At other times it blends and intertwines the instruments to form new timbres. In places I've asked the two players to make the cello sound more like a marimba and the marimba more like a cello--no easy task! I've asked them to be extremely sensitive to attacks of notes, to the sound envelopes, to the way in which sounds are accented, articulated or sustained, to the way dynamics are played, and so on. Throughout the piece, dynamic patterns, pitch slides in the cello, and harmonic and rhythmic materials are constantly being developed. As the work progresses, it changes from highly energetic, rhythmic, dynamic music, to a gentler, lyrical ending.

Recording is by:

Theodore Mook, cello

Matthew Gold, marimba

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.

Lois V Vierk

 for 8 cellos

"Simoom" is an Arabic word and refers to a hot, dry, violent wind. The piece uses high energy musical materials. It unfolds slowly and is very directional. It develops from relatively simple sound shapes and sound relationships, through continuously transforming textural structures to a climactic conclusion.

During the 1980's I often worked with ensembles of like-instruments. Like- instruments create a kind of transparency which allows instrumental lines and a wide spectrum of timbral nuance to be easily heard. Two or more instruments act together to form one voice or "sound shape". Sound shapes interact then with each other, forming textures which can be described as a counterpoint of counterpoints.

I think of these works as creating one huge instrument from the sound of the entire ensemble together--in this case a giant cello made up of 8 parts.

The textures, and the musical materials and phrases comprising the, are ever developing according to principles of what I call "Exponential Structure". Rates of change of the materials are constantly increasing by an exponential factor throughout this work.

Recording is by Ted Mook, cello, from CD:

XI Records, XI 102 "Lois  V Vierk: Simoom"

Click here to view the CD on XI Records.

Click here to view the score.

Lois V Vierk

for cello, electric guitar, percussion, and synthesizer

The title of this piece refers to the way in which astronomers and physicists measure movement and distances of distant celestial bodies. Briefly, characteristic lines and patterns made by different elements found in the star, etc., as observed through a spectrometer, are shifted in one direction or the other, towards the red or towards the blue end of the spectrum, depending on whether the body is moving away from us or towards us. This shift is called the "red shift".

When I wrote this work, I had the feeling of sornething of great mass and motion, far away, accelerating like toward a comet. us, faster It first and seemed faster, to until move finally slowly, at then great gradually speed it began I felt it sweeping down upon us, through us, and back out into the heavens.

Red Shift was commissioned by the Experimental Intermedia Foundation with support from the Mary Flagler Cary Charitable Trust.

Recording is by:

Ted Mook, cello

David Seidel, electric guitar

Jim Pugliese, percussion

Lois V Vierk, synthesizer

from CD:

Tzadik 7056 "Lois V Vierk: River Beneath the River"

Click here to view the CD on Tzadik.

Click here to view the score.

Lois V Vierk and Anita Feldman

for solo tap dancer on Tap Dance Instrument (patented), cello, and marimba

Twister is one of six music/tap dance works co-created by tap dance choreographer Anita Feldman and composer Lois V Vierk during the 1980s and 90s and is one of a number of works that Feldman created with various composers for her Tap Dance Instrument (patented). It had long been Feldman's belief that music made by the feet was equal to music made by musical instruments. Desiring to dance on an instrument that would allow the dancers' feet to make resonant and varied music in any performance situation, she joined forces with San Francisco instrument builder Daniel Schmidt to design the modular and portable Tap Dance Instrument, which was then constructed by Schmidt in 1987. The Tap Dance Instrument consists of six platforms, each about 9 inches off the ground. They can be arranged in any desired configuration. Three of the modules are hexagons of approximately 5 feet across, made of different woods and constructed in varying ways, so that they have individual resonances and timbres. A fourth platform is the "Tap Marimba" with 7 pitched keys. These large wooden keys can be replaced with alternates, so a number of tunings are possible. The remaining two platforms are smaller and are topped with thick brass slabs. They ring like bells, one higher pitched and the other lower. Twister uses 4 of the 6 floor modules, namely the wooden oak module, the Tap Marimba, and the two brass-topped modules.

Twister originated from the artists' desire to make a piece that would feature a solo dancer's virtuoso tapping ability. The work combines tap, cello and marimba to create sounds and movements inspired by wind -- from gentle breezes to twisting tornadoes.

Feldman and Vierk worked together on all major aspects of the work. They experimented with different tapping techniques on each of the Tap Dance Instrument floor modules. They developed sound materials and phrases together, and these later turned into larger sections and then into the entire piece. The cello and marimba parts were composed to intertwine with the tap dance part.

Composer and choreographer commission fees for Twister were made possible by a grant from Meet The Composer's Composer/ Choreographer Project, a national program funded by the Ford Foundation and The Pew Charitable Trust.

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The premiere of Twister was at a music concert presented at Merkin Hall in New York City by the ISCM (International Society of Contemporary Music) on March 18, 1993. Anita Feldman Tap (Anita Feldman's dance company) performed Twister many times after that, at both dance and music venues. Performance highlights include New York City venues Town Hall, Woodpeckers Tap Dance Center, The Kitchen, and radio WNYC-fm, as well as at Dance Place in Washington DC. The piece was performed in Germany at Podewil concert hall in Berlin, Theaterhaus in Frankfurt, Galerie Rose in Hamburg and Pro Musica Nova Festival, Radio Bremen.

Over the years Twister has been danced by Anita Feldman and by Rhonda Price. Cellists have included Ted Mook, Mark Stewart and Bruce Wang. Marimba players have included Tigger Benford, Michael Lipsey, Gary Schall and Thad Wheeler. Costume design is by Denise Mitchell. Lighting design is by Sarah Sidman.

Audio live in concert recording, which plays while viewing the score, is by:

Anita Feldman dancing on Tap Dance InstrumentMark Stewart, celloTigger Benford, marimba 

Recorded live in concert at Merkin Hall, New York City, March 18, 1993

Click here to view the score and listen to the audio recording.

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Video recorded live in concert (a good look at the choreography, sound quality is fair) 

Rhonda Price dancing on Tap Dance InstrumentBruce Wang, celloThad Wheeler, marimba

Video recorded live in concert June 20, 1998, at The Kitchen (NYC)

Click here to view the video recording.