3 stoppages non-étalon, viola sola (2012)
3 stoppages non-étalon was inspired by Duchamp’s 3 stoppages etalon (3 standard stoppages), 1913/1964 (at right).
The 3 Stoppages non-étalon are each approximately equal in duration — here about 11 minutes each. To be very literal about Duchamp’s idea and convert a meter to 39.3 inches then divide it by 3, might suggest that the duration of each be 13.1 minutes; that would be obsessive but not impossible!
The equal durations have a musical reason as each of them are intended to be played sola, as duos and a trio; therefore: 1, 2, 3, 1+2, 2+3, 1+2+3. It’s a little like 3-D chess. Actually, they are not conceived to be played with other violists, but additive with recordings made live to an installation like arrangement of loudspeakers in different parts of the performance space(s); when properly performed the violist will play the last phrase with them-self.
The music is not, however, synchronized by fixed meters and rhythms; it needs freedom, whereby the tunings and timbres — the beating and difference tones — require musical independence, which should ultimately be rendered into these proportions. Note that the times given in the score are only suggestions and to indicate how correspondences may be made.
Some comments on the notation and tuning indications might be helpful before writing about its musical nature. The intervals are derived from primarily three sources: scales on each string based on ratios of 11 and 33, and natural harmonics. For example:
III (G):33:33 & 11:11
33:32 = G+49
33:31 = G#+4
12:11 = G#+47
33:30 = A-39
33:29 = A+20
33:28 = A#-19
13:11 = A#-15
Reference charts for all the strings are available below.
The importance of this system is to codify intervals that produce a great variety of beating in varying proximity to each other and be able to sensitize the ear. I have created a page indicating cents between most of the double stops for the first Stoppage, which graphically illustrates, especially for the closer intervals, the rate of the beating.
The temporal aspect of the piece is completely dependent upon shaping phrases with the vibrations, timbres and difference tones that emerge through these intervals. A very personal musical sensibility must therefore be formed by the player in order to make it work. In my mind I contrast affect and effect, where effect is the acoustic phenomena (beating, difference tones, etc.) and affect the various lyricisms called upon. Effect (acoustic phenomena) always takes more time to speak; affect can be annotative. It’s a little like a hike through the desert, where one first notices only the large spaces until one becomes conscious of the particularities of its ecology.
I also might say that I am interested in a full range of consciousness and expression that reconciles the sound worlds of Alvin Lucier with the glorious dissonances of the Carter Family's Sad and Lonesome Day.
