Several Questionable Decisions (2011)

open ensemble

variable duration

purchase score

Program Note:

These short open-instrumentation pieces were written as part of a collaboration with Martin Heindl, who proposed the idea of us each composing pieces that left some significant aspect to be interpreted by the other.  The significant aspect to be interpreted in Several Questionable Decisions is intonation.  Sonorities and melodic passages can be tuned in multiple ways by the ensemble.  Accidentals are used in a way to suggest subtle gradations of pitch shading which, depending on the performance strategy, will result in a variety of changes in color from moment to moment.

GUIDELINES:

Duration 1-5: 9 - 20 minutes
Any instruments may be used for this piece.

If the minimum of three players are used, at least two of the three instruments must be capable of precise tuning.

If more notes are present in a sonority than there are instruments to play them, then the ensemble must choose a collection of pitches from the full collection. In these cases, it is also an option for a player to alternate between 2 - 4 notes from the collection, providing that tuning of chosen pitches remains constant within that bar.

It is not a requirement that a sustained note be sustained by the same instrument for the entire duration.
This may be orchestrated throughout the ensemble.

If no dynamics are given, the dynamic is to be chosen by the ensemble. The sonorities can be balanced as the ensemble wishes.

A note marked with a "harmonic" circle may be played as an actual harmonic or may be played in a way as to create a similar sound.

A vertical slash through a notehead is meant to have an impure quality to it.

Precise intonation of sonorities is to be carefully chosen by the ensemble.

An arrow exending from an accidental is larger than an arrow that stands alone.

The use of double-sharps, double-flats, and other accidentals that would produce an otherwise "enharmonically" white note, should also be treated as shadings of tuning.