diastemas [2005-I] (2005)
Alcides Lanza
PUBLISHER: Shelan
RECORDINGS: Night Chill, Catherine Meunier (Centrediscs)
RANGE: 4.3 octaves
DURATION: 9:15
MOVEMENTS: Single movement
TYPE OF ACCOMPANIMENT: Fixed
MUSICAL OVERVIEW: The work requires incidental percussion: temple blocks, three wood blocks, a log drum, and bamboo wind chimes. Elements of graphic notation combine with standard staff notation. The notation is also a mixture of proportional and time notation, with markers indicating 15-second intervals. The score contains a page of symbols and text as instructions. The work as a whole does not have a tonal center. Each repeated cell contains harmonic material that binds it as a unit, but from one to the next may be drastically different. Though the music is quite specifically notated, the freedom of interpretation due to the proportional system gives a sense of improvisation. A set of two-tone mallets is best suited to achieve not only the vast dynamic range but their core can be activated to provide clarity on the percussion instruments. The core sound in the louder dynamics will also help push the marimba above the texture of the tape.
ACCOMPANIMENT OVERVIEW: Sampled percussion sounds that have been digitally processed. The tape and performer should relatively synchronize, no specifically unison moments occur. The tape consists of gestural sounds on marimba, crotales, temple blocks, drums, and bells.
TECHNIQUE OVERVIEW: SI, SIA, DV, and DL. Both hands extensively use the interval of a major ninth through the entire range of the marimba. The performer is allowed adequate time to comfortably execute large leaps. At times, there is a large space between the hands. The technical demands of playing are outweighed by the demands of reading the notation.
COMPOSER'S NOTE: The following text by Alcides Lanza was taken from the score:
Diastema [Gr. Interval, from 'diasté': to stand apart]. In Biology, it refers to the modified protoplasm at the equator of a cell, which exists previous to the mitotic division of the cell. Musicological studies in Iberoamerica make references to certain medieval music styles as "música diastemática". This music style, able to notate the intervallic distances with more precision, came after the notation with 'neumas'. Established around the Vth C. [fifth century], neumatic notation was able to specify the exact number of notes in a melody, but was rather imprecise in terms of pitch and intervals, as well as rhythm.