James Tenney: Flocking [w/ score] (1993)

James Tenney (1934–2006)
Flocking, for two pianos tuned a quarter-tone apart (1993)

Tomas Bächli & Gertrud Schneider


Flocking, for two pianos tuned a quarter-tone apart, was composed in October 1993 in Berlin, at the invitation of Gertrud Schneider and Tomas Bächli, and first performed by them on 13 April 1994 in Prague. Both pianists read from a copy of the same graphic score, in which time runs from left to right on each of thirteen sixty-second pages; pitch is represented approximately by position in the vertical dimension, from low to high; and dynamic levels are indicated by the size of each square “note”, from smallest (pp) to largest (ff). The players are not expected to play each of these notes precisely, but rather simply to render the general characteristics of the various visual textures, and their gradual evolution in time. The articulation should be staccato throughout, but the pianists are free to use the damper and sostenuto pedals, in some agreed-upon, coordinated way. Similarly, the timbre may be varied by the use of the una corda pedal, occasionally by plucking or striking the strings directly, in addition to the use of the keyboard, etc.


© James Tenney - Canadian Music Centre

James Tenney Estate
http://www.jamestenney.net/


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