IN OUR ELEMENT

I. Buffalo Jam (RUST), Pauline Oliveros/Chamber Brews

Mode: G A B C C# D E F# G

1 - iron

Make sounds that are hard, metallic, shiny, and strong. Slashing out of silence like a sword. Slicing like a good kitchen knife. Play with clear tone. Listen to the sounds of others. Respond by repeating, imitating, mirroring, riffing, joining, and separating.

2 - rusting

Gradually, by very subtle changes, transition to the polar opposite of iron sounds: rusty sounds. Continue to listen, join, and separate with other players.

3 - rust

Find your way into sounds that are disintegrated, grainy, dull, cracked, and weak. Crumbling like the way salt and water gradually eat away at hard metal, turning it into sand. Play with dull tone, pitchless. Continue to listen, and make sounds that separate from other players.

II. Buffalo Jam (OPAL), Pauline Oliveros/Sam Johnson

Mode: D E F# G# A B C

1 - particulate

Players fad ein from silence, one by one. Play fast streams of transparent notes, like grains of sand carried through underground rivers. Become thick and busy together

2 - coagulating

All this heat and compression must generate new material. Gradually add accents to the fast streams of soft notes, sometimes rhythmic, syncopated, or groovy. One by one, introduce long pedal tones. Fast streams remain at all times. Find your way to a forte sound eventually.

3 - spectral

Find your way to extreme brightness, luminescent rainbow sounds. Use any natural harmonics on the D string. Make rainbow sounds. Play duets - e.g. two players in fast streams of notes with accents, and two players in pedal tones. Make counterpoint and harmonies in your duets. Players change role one by one, to make a new duet. One by one, players finish strong followed by silence.

Stringsongs, 2005

Meredith Monk

Intermission

Untouched, 2017

Mvt I, Rising

John Luther Adams

Only Ever Us, 2021

Paul Wiancko