vivace ma con calma A[

G
Isaac Otto
27 January 2016

vivace ma con calma A[

G

A box is drawn approximately 26cm x 8.8cm on a half-sheet of heavy cotton paper. The
text vivace ma con calma from Saariahos Nymphea is enlarged and traced inside the box.
G and A[ serve as the lowest and highest pitches of the performance, respectively. The
durations of each word are determined by ratio. The first word is played for six units
time. The second for 1.5, the third for six and the fourth for four. The distance between G
and A[ is deliberately left ambiguous, as is the precise duration of the performance.
For our performance, we have chosen the smallest interval between G and A[,
namely one semitone. In order to perform the contour, we have chosen to each act as
an imaginary point tracing the route that Saariahos pen must have taken in scribing
the expressive text. However, a more contrapuntal interpretation favoring the splitting of
unplayable loops would also be valid and encouraged. We take the breaks in text to be
<tacet>, and cue each other to proceed. The performance ends once both players have
reached the end of the final word.
The concept for this performance synthesizes several aspects of Saariahos Nymphea
and of Brechtian event scores. Our intent was to draw from the raw material provided by
Saariahos work and to run it through a twofold process - generating both visual and auditory
musical texts. Our raw material was, of course, the expressive text found above measure
105 in the score. We found that taken at face value the text was at least enigmatic if not
outright paradoxical. This text would serve as the vehicle for further exploration of one of
the more aurally pertinent aspects of Saariahos piece - namely, the small-interval glissandi
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that pervade the score. These glissandi at once allude to and signal the inutility of traditional
harmonic/hierarchical structures - in this case, cadences.