- Ariadnemusic (1984)
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Eleanor Hovda
for flute, clarinet in Bb, violin, viola, violoncello, piano, and percussion
ca. 14'42"
For the Boston Musica Viva, Richard Pittman, music director
Click here to view revised performance notes.
Click here to hear a recording by the Prism Players on the Eleanor Hovda Collection CD on Spotify.
- Leaning Into and Away (1994)
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Eleanor Hovda
for flute, oboe, clarinet in Bb, percussion, piano, and string quartet
ca. 12'51"
Commissioned by the Cuicani Orchestra Project, with support from the US/Mexico Fund for Culture
Dedicated to the memory of Manuel Enriquez
I use the title Leaning Into and Away because the piece grew out of many thoughts about and experiences dancing and making music for dancers. I found myself focussing particularly on the energies of running on the ground and leaping into space, and the flow of energy involved in any physical moves from balance to suspension. I also wanted to work with the idea of excavating sounds from the bone and sinew of piano, wind, string, and percussion instruments – as dancers draw energy from deep inside their bodies.
Click here to view the performance notes.
Click here to hear a recording by the Prism Players on Spotify.
- Regions (1971, rev. 1997)
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Eleanor Hovda
for flute, clarinet in Bb, violin, grand piano, and crotales
ca. 12'40"
Commissioned by the Atlanta Contemporary Chamber Ensemble, California EAR Unit, and Boston Musica Viva through the Meet the Composer/Readers Digest Commissioning Program
Click here to view an addendum related to pages 4 - 11.
Click here to hear a recording by the California EAR Unit on Spotify.
- Snapdragon (1993)
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Eleanor Hovda
for flute, oboe, Bb clarinet, bassoon, horn in F
Commissioned by the Holland Festival for the Nederlands Blazers Ensemble
Snapdragon is written for the Nederlands Wind Ensemble, and was completed on May 19, 1993. I use the title Snapdragon because it refers to a game** where raisins are snatched from burning flames. 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 wind instruments: the expansions of single pitches, either fingered or otherwise altered, which can happen when extremes of breath control, additions of auxilllary keys and alternatve fingerings are used. I imagine the energy of watching the flames and then swiftly snatching at the raisins. I imagine the energy of both participating in the game and watching the action.
**a Victorian-era game played during the winter, particularly on Christmas eve
Click here to hear a recording by the Prism Players on the Eleanor Hovda Collection CD (Spotify).
- Earthrunner (1966)
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Eleanor Hovda
for flute, timpani, and double bass
- Lemniscates (1988)
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Eleanor Hovda
for string quartet
ca. 18'00"
"Lemniscates was composed for the Kronos String Quartet to be premiered at the New Music America, Miami, during the December 1988 Festival. The piece was developed, in large part, to work in the barely audible range. It is about excavating "sound around the sound," a sonic resource of stringed instruments rarely used in an acoustical setting.
The title Lemniscates derives from the Latin word "Lemniscus," meaning "with hanging ribbons." In mathematics, the word refers to the figure-of-eight shape, and is defined as follows: "the locus of the foot of the perpendicular from the center of a conic on its axis." The dance theorist, Rudolph von Laban, uses the word to describe figure-of-eight energy shapes drawn by the body in space. I use the word in all of the above contexts - to describe "ribbons of sound," to illustrate techiniques of bowing, and to provide a metaphor for the spacial motion of the sound ribbons, and the choreographed sonic scultpure created by the Kronos Quartet."
Click here to read a letter from Hovda to David Harrington, containing additional performance notes.
- Boundaries (1989)
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Eleanor Hovda
for four flutes and four double basses
ca. 7'11"
Boundaries is about extents and limits. The piece makes use of the differences and similarities of the instruments, including variables in dynamic and pitch ranges, timbre and articulation (bowed, plucked, blown). The energy of extremes and stretched perimeters contrasted to dense overlays, works with ideas of expanding and conracting sound-fields.
Click here to listen to the recording by Anonymous on the Eleanor Hovda Collection CD on Spotify.
- A Quartet (1971)
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Eleanor Hovda
for voice, flute, and Flexitone
- Leaning Into and Away (trio)
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Eleanor Hovda
for soprano, contrabass, and percussion
ca. 12'51"
- Traces (1990)
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Eleanor Hovda
for english horn/oboe and electric bass
- Strings (1989)
-
Eleanor Hovda
for violin and piano
For Stephanie Chase, commissioned by the Schubert Club
Strings was commissioned by the Schubert Club for violinist Stephanie Chase. I used metaphors from multidimensional string theories, where energy is conceived as infinite "strings" in space/time, and the Universe is said to have extra hidden dimensions. I have been working, for some time, on articulating lemniscates (figure-of-eight ribbons) as sonic sculptur. I'm also intrigued by an often unexplored timbral resource of stringed instruments: the "sound around the sound" of overtones, harmonics.
I visualize the piece as sound choreography, where the violin spins sonic "strings" and the piano is resonator, afterimage, or "shadow universe." The pitch structures in the piece derive from the harmonic series, and are shaped by bending, twisting and stretching those basic pitch relationships as much as possible without "breaking" them, or turning them into something else. The piano functions as an accumulating resonance field throughout the piece.
- Song in High Grasses (1985)
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Eleanor Hovda
for soprano, flute, cello, and bowed piano
ca. 12'14"
Song in High Grasses is written for Charlotte Regni, and is made around a yodel-like call which she learned as a child living in Zaire, Africa. The piece is a sonic visualization of an imaginary outdoor space with tall grasses, large plants, warm winds, and somnulant insects, birds, and beasts. The call-song floats around and dances with the ambience of wind, rustling grasses, and creature sounds.
- Ondes Doubles (1971)
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Eleanor Hovda
for flute, viola, harp, and Ondes Martenot
- No Snow (1990)
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Eleanor Hovda
for violin, guitar, clarinet, and bowed piano
- Movement for String Quartet (1963)
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Eleanor Hovda
for string quartet
- Journeymusic (1981)
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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.
- Folios (1980)
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Eleanor Hovda
for concrète tape, voice, glass harmonica, bells, bird call, toy piano, piano, clarinet, recorders, and double plastic pipes, dancer
- Firefall (1974)
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Eleanor Hovda
for flute, voice, double bass, and dancer
- Crossings (1983)
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Eleanor Hovda
for dancer, clarinet, double bass, percussion, and Audubon birdcall chorus
Crossings was made in 1983 for dancer Sharon Friedler and clarinetist Louis Friedler for my Perspectives VIII concert at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis in March of that year. The piece also uses double bass, laid flat like a koto, as well as bowed metal temple bells. Audubon birdcalls are played by the dancer, the musicians, and members of the audience.
Crossings takes its structural content from three sources simultaneously: Zeno's Paradox, that says that destinations (or "center") can be approached but never reached; "alternating currents" of energy, concepts - in this case, use of alternating ideas of measuring/passing time in increments ("clock" time) with "the time it takes to do something" ("process" time); and the activity of body crossings used as a physical aid to integrating right/left side of the brain functioning.
Thus, Crossings is a way to approach a center as well as to move away from a center. Crossings explores extents and limits, boundaries. Repetition is used introspectively, to probe gently, to excavate carefully.
- Cheetah (1992)
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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.