Sylvia Lim
Overlapping Transformations
for mixed quartet
(2022)
Commissioned by Prague Quiet Music Collective for a project with Prague City Gallery.
Exhibition and concert at Dům U kamenného zvonu (Stone Bell House), Old Town Square, Prague in December 2022.
Written for:
Bass clarinet
Electric guitar (prepared with cotton bud, using violin bow, standard tuning EADGBE)
Violin
Double bass (superball mallet)
Open duration (minimum 5 mins)
Transposing Score
Score accurate as of 2 December 2022
© Copyright 2022 Sylvia Lim
[ D E S C R I P T I O N ]
This piece was written in response to a set of photograms within Aleksandra Vajd’s ‘The Thirty-Six Dramatic Situations’, which features two
ascending parallel lines, each changing colour halfway. To me this work is about things in flux, things moving toward or away from something else.
In my piece, I am interested in how players might focus on periods of instability and change, within and between sounds. By leaving the score more
open I hope to give more space for players to follow their curiosity and their ears, to be responsive to the sounds and each other in the moment.
[PERFORMER I N S T R U C T I O N S ]
Each player has a sound map.
Each player decides how to get from one sound to another — moving slowly or swiftly, gradually or suddenly, with or without a break.
Players may move in any direction (except electric guitarist), and revisit sounds frequently or not at all.
Not all materials must be played. This may vary depending on the duration of the performance.
All sounds between ppp and mp.
Be attentive to any ‘accidents’/ unexpected sounds. If they appeal, you may explore them further as another transformation.
The electric guitar plays from the start of the performance.
Sometimes certain pathways between sounds are specified with arrows. Please explore these routes as building blocks alongside others you might
discover.
The work should be characterised by:
Attentive listening
A curiosity towards your own sounds and that of others
A discovery of the malleable boundaries of your sounds and how these sounds might transform into one another
The piece should feel focused. Be sensitive to the pace at which ideas are introduced over time.
The piece should unfold naturally, without any forced dramatic event, as though we are living with the sounds. Give them space to speak.
But at the same time, keep the overall texture alive, rich and shifting.
Sparser moments should still be tense. Fuller moments should still have a degree of transparency.
[VIOLIN]
molto sul pont. (traces of pitch)
bridge (white noise)
go back and forth
(let pitch gradually
dampen strings
explore:
emerge/ disappear)
- tremolo speed
- as an artificial harmonic instead
- degree of pitch clarity
very airy, light and fast bow,
sul pont. slow bend → white noise
silence
explore:
- time before bending (none?)
- duration of bend (e.g. short, very long?)
[BASS CLARINET]
multiphonic trill
for the multiphonic trills, explore:
- start / end in air
- single pitch into multiphonic / vice versa
- trill with bass notes only
silence - shape of dynamics (still quiet)
- speed
avoid higher partials (stick with the
indicated pitches as much as possible)
multiphonic trill
air
(dgdgdg)
Multiphonics taken from Heather Roche, https://heatherroche.net/2015/05/19/quiet-multiphonic-trills-for-bass-clarinet/, accessed 1/10/2022
[DOUBLE BASS]
explore:
- contour
- length of sound(s), phrasing
- amount of superball pressure (vary internal dynamics of sound)
- rare, intermittent, or frequent for a time?
whale-like
drag superball slowly downwards along string(s)
silence avoid obvious glissando sound
explore:
- choice of string(s): individual, multiple?
- length of string(s)
subtle, quiet, low rumbling / murmuring
drag superball on tailpiece or back of instrument body
[ELECTRIC GUITAR]
Preparation: weave cotton bud through all strings at fret 9 (over string 6, under 5, over 4, under 3, over 2, and under 1).
Cotton bud should have paper stick.
Place guitar flat on surface in front of you.
Use violin bow.
All plucking occurs on the left of cotton bud. This should sound gong-like (a little bit of rattle is fine but not too much).
Play from the start of the performance.
back and forth
fast, light trem.
as gradually as possible fast trem. (white noise: bow parallel to string)
while plucking every 2-4s while plucking every 2-4s
introduce these into explore:
the mix in stages as - tremolo speed
time goes on - pluck other strings too: , vary colour
- play with time in-between plucks
fast trem. (high whirring: bow parallel to string with hard
tip of bow angled at 45°)
while plucking
bridge - light, slow bow
silence find points of instability
(beating, vary partials)
