- Strings (1989)
-
Eleanor Hovda
for violin and piano
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)
-
Eleanor Hovda
for soprano, flute, cello, and bowed piano
ca. 12'14"
- Ondes Doubles (1971)
-
Eleanor Hovda
for flute, viola, harp, and Ondes Martenot
- No Snow (1990)
-
Eleanor Hovda
for violin, guitar, clarinet, and bowed piano
- Movement for String Quartet (1963)
-
Eleanor Hovda
for string quartet
- Journey Music (1981)
-
Eleanor Hovda
for flute, clarinet in Bb, violin, contrabass, piano, and percussion
ca. 8'03"
Click here to see the Performance Notes.
- Folios (1980)
-
Eleanor Hovda
for concrète tape, voice, glass harmonica, bells, bird call, toy piano, piano, clarinet, recorders, and double plastic pipes, dancer
- Firefall (1974)
-
Eleanor Hovda
for flute, voice, double bass, and dancer
- Crossings (1983)
-
Eleanor Hovda
for dancer, clarinet, double bass, percussion, and Audubon birdcall chorus
Crossings was made in 1983 for dancer Shron Friedler and clarinetist Loius 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)
-
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
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 actice 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.
- Waveschart (1970)
-
Eleanor Hovda
for flute, B-flat clarinet, percussion, piano, and bass
- The Lion's Head (1971)
-
Eleanor Hovda
for flute, B-flat clarinet, violin, and cello
- Music From Several Summers (1972)
-
Eleanor Hovda
for two double basses
- Mountain Goat File (1992)
-
Eleanor Hovda
for clarinet, electric guitar, cello, doublebass, and percussion
"Mountain Goat File is made for the Bang on a Can All-Stars. It is a piece from other pieces, because BOAC All-Stars wanted to perfrom an already-extant piece, and I decided to make a piece where the new ideas would be the combination of instruments and the overall form, but the specific music for each instrument would be borrowed from other pieces. My task was to work with already-extant material in a new format. Mountain Goat File, as a title, comes from a file I have in my computer for things that relate tangentally or, only if one makes a huge conceptual leaps from one place to another. I have been interested for some time in "journey music" - music that deals with testing boundaries, traversing shifiting landscapes and projecting evolving fields of energy. Mountain Goat File leaps, rather than shifts, from pinnacle to pinnacle. Sometimes it is isolated and slippery there, and sometimes it is a sociable plateau."
- If Tigers Were Clouds (1994)
-
Eleanor Hovda
for B-flat clarinet, marimba, temple blocks, vibraphone, and piano
ca. 15'15"
...then reverberating, they would create all songs.
For Zeitgeist, developed during Music in Motion Project
- Hollows (1985)
-
Eleanor Hovda
for flute, oboe, bassoon, violin, and cello
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