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gumdrops and kittens
Hallowmas Fanfare '03
Duration: ≈2'
Date Completed: October '03
Part of Series: none
Score: PDF
(Please note: this is a very bare bones performance score, and not representative of the majority of my scores)
Recording: Track 1 on
Fracture: The Music of Pat Muchmore
Performed by: Jean Cook, Hubert Chen (violins), Leanne Darling (viola), Pat Muchmore (cello)
The main title of the piece was just randomly chosen when I was drunk, although Franz Nicolay has pointed out that these are two of the titular "favorite things" from Sound of Music's "My Favorite Things," so there's that. The piece was written for The World/Inferno Friendship Society's annual Hallowmas festival in 2003, for which the ASM string quartet was invited to perform before the main concert as well as on stage for the opening number, "Tatoos Fade." It was extremely awesome.
There's not really a whole lot to this piece beyond a raw, visceral drive all the way to the end. The same motive which begins the piece in the cello occurs throughout, and it is built so that it gradually, almost sneakily, rises by a half-step as it's reiterated. This culminates in the final swoop at the end of the piece, where the idea of "rising" takes over completely. The cello riff that lies underneath the screeching violins (roughly 48" into the recording) is reused as a primary riff in my piece PortRaitS_4&five,**NYC'04 for solo cello and effects pedals, because I like it.
The weird sound at the end of the recording is my bow dropping out of my nerveless hand onto the floor after the nth take of this vicious ostinato. I do that way too often. In fact, during the recording of this album, my bow broke in half and I had to borrow a basic bow from a friend of Dan Neustadt's (the pianist in the last tracks of the record). Thanks again Michelle Cooper! I wish I could say that this sound was that fatal drop, or that the bow broke in half while playing one of the more violent cello lines, but I'm pretty sure that I just knocked it off my cello accidentally. If anyone asks, tell them it was raw power.
Playing with World/Inferno is one my Favorite Things that I've ever done, and I hope that a smidgen of their raw power rubbed off on this little ditty.
This piece is more of an angry and disgusting palate cleanser. A detailed analysis would probably reveal little, and be fairly boring to boot.
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