Elliott Sharp: Orchestra Carbon—RHEO~UMBRA

Elliott Sharp: Orchestra Carbon—Rheo~Umbra

“Schattenflut”: this is how I would translate the unconventional title of this piece that I composed for Orchestra Carbon in 1997 - and this is also how I would describe the musical movements that appear in it.

Rheo~Umbra has seven parts; In them, through-composed passages, algorithmically controlled ensemble playing and solo improvisations overlap. One of the piece's algorithmic experiments is the "transient additive pulse": a drum accent and its after-effects mutate into a pulsating groove. I also work with the hoquetus technique (a melody is “cut up” and divided into different voices), and I make ostinati from some phrases that overlap and change over time.

I would like to gradually translate the horizontal identity of tones and lines into a vertical one. For the formal cohesion, it is important to me that I follow an overall concept for the sound: two keyboard players play samples that I have recorded myself - with special playing techniques on soprano saxophone and bass clarinet, and with a series of sounds on the slabs (these samples are then combined with live played slabs).

I built the slabs in 1982. They are horizontal bass instruments with four strings and a sliding bridge (for different intonations); they have pickups on both ends, with separate outputs (to achieve stereo sound). There are three copies that I use very differently: in smaller Carbon formations, in the Larynx performance of Orchestra Carbon (there sometimes all three at the same time) and in various solo projects. When I was working with an IVL pitchrider for my solo performance Virtual Stance in 1986 - tone by tone migrated via the MIDI interface to a sampler (first an Ensoniq Mirage, then a Roland 330) - I compiled a comprehensive catalog of slab Sounds to stop having to carry around this bulky and easily provoked instrument.

But some of his sounds simply cannot be reproduced with a sampler, and for a long time I thought about a composition in which these peculiarities come into their own. Except for the slab, I play a fretless electric guitar in this piece. It is a special instrument for me; I bought them as a cheap import from Norma in 1973. I removed the frets myself.

The piece I present here with Orchestra Carbon is an extension of a quintet version. Zeena Parkins, David Weinstein, Marc Sloan and Joseph Trump have been tirelessly touring with me and the play since the fall of 1992, in Europe, Japan and the USA. Each of them has their own way of implementing my compositional wishes and - on the next level - of improvising, making a personal comment and inferring things that are not written in the score.

I had also worked for a long time with the Soldier String Quartet, which can be integrated into other ensembles in terms of sound. Here the quartet plays in the instrumentation David Soldier and Sara Parkins (violins), Judith Insell (viola) and Rufus Cappadocia (cello). In addition, two bass clarinet virtuosos contribute their incomparable harmonic and melodic material: Tim Smith and Evan Spritzer.

Rheo~Umbra had its live premiere on the evening of March 13, 1997 at New York's Knitting Factory. The piece was played twice; Bryce Goggin made a 16-track digital recording, which was then mixed at Studio zOaR. We present here the second run, completely without cuts. The original Rheo~Umbra CD was released on my label zOaR as a limited edition of 300 signed and numbered copies, in a handmade Italian rice paper cover.

(Translation: Michael Herrschel)