{"id":2024,"date":"2025-04-05T15:26:14","date_gmt":"2025-04-05T13:26:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/michael-edwards.org\/wp\/?p=2024"},"modified":"2025-04-07T20:29:21","modified_gmt":"2025-04-07T18:29:21","slug":"great-symphony-in-c","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/michael-edwards.org\/wp\/?p=2024","title":{"rendered":"great symphony in c"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"outline-container-org09397c9\" class=\"outline-2\">\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Michael Edwards ~ great symphony in c ~ for two double basses and electronics\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/amHm42VBCkM?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Javad Javadzade asked for a piece for two double basses and electronics. He wanted to be able to perform it alone also, so ended up having to trigger electronics way more than is usually acceptable. Be careful what you wish for, I suppose. It was a good test of current digital resources as the performance computer was on stage and Javad&#8217;s bluetooth pedal (which would usually just turn score pages on a tablet) was used to trigger things in a max patch as well as the score pages on a local network. It was all a bit nerve-wracking for me as if something went wrong (what? bluetooth is just so robust!) then there was nothing I could do.<\/p>\n<p>Score available <a href=\"https:\/\/michael-edwards.org\/stopen\/michael\/great-symphony-score.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<h2><\/h2>\n<h2 id=\"org09397c9\">programme note<\/h2>\n<div id=\"text-org09397c9\" class=\"outline-text-2\">\n<p><i>great symphony in c (in five movements)<\/i>, for two double basses and electronics, was written for Javad Javadzade and Niek de Groot. These two musicians use different open-string tunings: Javad in fifths from low C, like a cello; Niek the more usual fourths from low E. This offers all sorts of possibilities for single and double-harmonic combinations and these are the mainstay for three out of the five movements of my piece.<\/p>\n<p>The title alludes, amongst other things, to Schubert&#8217;s Ninth symphony, with its grand opening horn melody. This was bold and perhaps risky instrumentation for its time, given that brass instruments were in a transition period between natural instruments that used <i>transposition crooks<\/i> and those which used valves. For instance, the fourth note of Schubert&#8217;s melody, middle A, was not playable on the natural instruments, so unless new valve instruments were available it would have been played as the seventh partial of the C fundamental, tuned down with hand and lip, with all the attendant risk of not quite making it (in tune). In quoting this melody across the two differently tuned basses, my piece plays with the divergent frequencies arising out of playing ostensibly the same pitches as different harmonics, e.g. a high C as the 16th partial of the low C string, or the 7th partial of the D string\u2013theoretically at least almost 10Hz, or 31 cents apart.<\/p>\n<p>The <i>five movements<\/i> of my title refer not only to the actual separate movements which make up this work but also to five stage movements: starting far apart, and ideally invisible to the audience, the duo eventually meets mid-stage, close enough to play each others&#8217; instruments in fact\u2014at least the open strings, with the lowest three forming a lovely sub-bass C Major triad.<\/p>\n<p>Each movement has its own subtitle: <i>1. hello again franz<\/i>, <i>2. sniping from the sidelines<\/i>, <i>3. double harmonic bliss<\/i>, <i>4. this&#8217;ll embarrass ya<\/i>, and <i>5. this is not what arnold meant<\/i>. Furthering the connection to the symphony, which is of course meant only tongue-in-cheek, the fourth movement is a dance, though by no means a tame <i>minuet and trio<\/i>\u2014a <i>scherzo<\/i> is much more apt here, as it was so often in the works of Schubert himself, including his Ninth Symphony in C, the <i>Great<\/i>, though we could argue I take the joke far too far here.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div id=\"outline-container-org30f192e\" class=\"outline-2\">\n<h2 id=\"org30f192e\">programmtext<\/h2>\n<div id=\"text-org30f192e\" class=\"outline-text-2\">\n<p><i>great symphony in c (in five movements)<\/i>, f\u00fcr zwei Kontrab\u00e4sse und Elektronik, wurde f\u00fcr Javad Javadzade und Niek de Groot geschrieben. Diese beiden Musiker verwenden unterschiedliche Stimmungen der offenen Saiten: Javad in Quinten vom tiefen C, wie ein Cello; Niek die \u00fcbliche Quarten vom tiefen E. Dies bietet alle m\u00f6glichen M\u00f6glichkeiten f\u00fcr einfach- und doppelharmonische Kombinationen, und diese sind f\u00fcr drei der f\u00fcnf S\u00e4tze meines St\u00fccks die Grundlage.<\/p>\n<p>Der Titel spielt unter anderem auf Schuberts neunte Sinfonie, mit ihrer gro\u00dfen Hornmelodie, an. F\u00fcr die damalige Zeit war dies eine k\u00fchne und vielleicht riskante Instrumentierung, da sich die Blechblasinstrumente in einer \u00dcbergangsphase zwischen nat\u00fcrlichen Instrumenten, die <i>Ansatzrohre<\/i>verwendeten, und solchen, die Ventile hatten. Zum Beispiel war die vierte Note von Schuberts Melodie, das mittlere A, auf nat\u00fcrlichen Instrumenten nicht spielbar, so dass sie, solange keine neuen Ventilinstrumente vorhanden waren, als siebter Teilton des C-Grundtons gespielt, mit Hand und Lippe nach unten gestimmt und mit dem Risiko, es nicht ganz zu schaffen oder gut zu intonieren. Indem ich diese Melodie \u00fcber die beiden unterschiedlich gestimmten B\u00e4sse zitiere, spielt mein St\u00fcck mit den abweichenden Frequenzen, die sich aus dem Spiel der scheinbar gleichen Tonh\u00f6hen als verschiedene Obert\u00f6ne gespielt werden, z. B. ein hohes C als 16tel-Teilton der tiefen C-Saite oder der 7. Teilton der D-Saite &#8211; theoretisch zumindest fast 10Hz, oder 31 Cent auseinander.<\/p>\n<p>Die <i>f\u00fcnf S\u00e4tze<\/i> meines Titels beziehen sich nicht nur auf die eigentlichen einzelnen S\u00e4tze die dieses Werk ausmachen, sondern auch auf f\u00fcnf B\u00fchnenbewegungen: Das Duo beginnt weit voneinander entfernt, und im Idealfall unsichtbar f\u00fcr das Publikum, trifft sich aber schlie\u00dflich in der Mitte der B\u00fchne, nahe genug, um die Instrumente des anderen zu spielen &#8211; zumindest die leeren Saiten, wobei die untersten drei Saiten einen sch\u00f6nen C-Dur-Dreiklang im Subbass bilden.<\/p>\n<p>Jeder Satz hat seinen eigenen Untertitel: <i>1. hello again franz<\/i>, <i>2. sniping from the sidelines<\/i>, <i>3. double harmonic bliss<\/i>, <i>4. this&#8217;ll embarrass ya<\/i> und <i>5. this is not what arnold meant<\/i>. Eine Vertiefung der Verbindung zur Sinfonie &#8211; die nat\u00fcrlich nur augenzwinkernd gemeint ist &#8211; ist der vierte Satz, ein Tanz, wenn auch keineswegs ein zahmes <i>Minuett und Trio<\/i> &#8211; ein <i>Scherzo<\/i> ist hier viel passender, wie so oft in den Werken von Schubert selbst, einschlie\u00dflich seiner Neunten Symphonie in C, der <i>Gro\u00dfen<\/i>, obwohl wir schon argumentieren k\u00f6nnten, dass ich hier den Witz ein wenig zu weit treibe.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Javad Javadzade asked for a piece for two double basses and electronics. He wanted to be able to perform it alone also, so ended up having to trigger electronics way more than is usually acceptable. Be careful what you wish for, I suppose. It was a good test of current digital resources as the performance [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2026,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27,11,165,137],"tags":[263,264],"class_list":["post-2024","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-composition","category-composition-documentation","category-folkwang","category-performances","tag-double-bass","tag-schubert"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/michael-edwards.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2024","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/michael-edwards.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/michael-edwards.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michael-edwards.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michael-edwards.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2024"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/michael-edwards.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2024\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2029,"href":"https:\/\/michael-edwards.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2024\/revisions\/2029"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michael-edwards.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2026"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/michael-edwards.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2024"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michael-edwards.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2024"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michael-edwards.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2024"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}