Preludes - Stephen Lewis

Preludes
A set of four songs
for male voice, bassoon, cello, double bass, and two percussionists
based on "Preludes" (1917) by T.S. Eliot
Stephen Lewis
“Preludes” is a short song cycle
based on “Preludes” (1917) by
T.S. Eliot. This work was
commissioned by Madison-based
new music ensemble Downbeat
Means Attack and was composed
for their unique instrumentation and their finely honed interactive playing style. The
first two songs were premiered on
October 26th, 2010 in Madison,
Wisconsin, and the complete set
will be premiered in 2011.
Performance Notes
Overpressure
Bassoon:
Behind the
bridge
Fluttertonguing
Multiphonic, based on
the top note’s
fingering
Overpressure for an
exact duration
As high as possible
Cello and Double Bass:
Bow-placement clef: bottom is molto
sul tasto, middle is ordinario, top is
molto sul ponticello
Knock on body of
instrument with
knuckles
Smooth “glissando”
between
bow placements
Discrete jumps between
bow placements
Normal pizzicato
(indicated on the bow
staff)
Strumming the
strings behind the
bridge
in both directions
Percussion
Special notes for “I”
Draw erratic lines on
the tam-tam with the
butt of a snare drum
stick
Voice
No vibrato, with
amplification
IPA elongation of text:
perform sounds exactly as
notated.
Vocal fry
Move gradually from one
phoneme to the next
The first 19 bars of “I” are polymetric and polytemporal. The bassoon,
cello, and double bass are each in their own meter and tempo and each
instrument usually starts and stops by themselves. Each beginning is marked
by a stroke of the timpani. In order to keep the ensemble together, there
are (at least) three options available:
1) The timpanist can cue each entrance for the bassoon, cello, and
double bass. The timpanist has cues written into his or her part, “B” bassoon, “C” for cello, “D” for double bass, “M” for marimba (percus-
sion 1), and “All” for all.
2) The singer can cue each entrance. The singer will be reading from
the full score and will be able to see the cues as well. The singer should only cue each entrance and should NOT conduct the timpani’s
meter and tempo. This is the strategy that was used at the premiere.
3) A conductor (not anyone in the ensemble) can be used to cue the
bassoon, cello, and double bass. Again, the conductor should NOT
conduct the meter of the timpani in the first 19 bars, but ONLY cue the instruments at the appropriate times.
Beginning at bar 19, the singer or the conductor should conduct in the
usual fashion.
All
Sustain until cue (see
below in notes on the
first song)
* The bassoon part has two final “free” sections in bars 27, 28, and 29.
Since the bassoon’s independent part begins on beat 2 of bar 27, the singer
or conductor should cue the bassoon here as though they were in the same
meter as everyone else.
** It goes without saying that each instrumentalist will have already
practiced and memorized their own individual tempos in bars 1-19.
*** In large bars 5 and 6, the singer or conductor should cue the double
bass, cello, and control the fermata, bringing the timpanist back in in bar
7. In large bars 12 and 13, the singer or conductor should cue the cello,
the double bass, and cue the bassoon to start its melody; all three
instruments should cut off with the timpani hit in bar 14.
Preludes (1917) T.S. Eliot
I
III
The winter evening settles down
With smell of steaks in passageways.
Six o’clock.
The burnt-out ends of smoky days.
And now a gusty shower wraps
The grimy scraps
Of withered leaves about your feet
And newspapers from vacant lots;
The showers beat
On broken blinds and chimneypots,
And at the corner of the street
A lonely cab-horse steams and stamps.
And then the lighting of the lamps.
You tossed a blanket from the bed
You lay upon your back, and waited;
You dozed, and watched the night revealing
The thousand sordid images
Of which your soul was constituted;
They flickered against the ceiling.
And when all the world came back
And the light crept up between the shutters
And you heard the sparrows in the gutters,
You had such a vision of the street
As the street hardly understands;
Sitting along the bed’s edge, where
You curled the papers from your hair,
Or clasped the yellow soles of feet
In the palms of both soiled hands.
II
IV
The morning comes to consciousness
Of faint stale smells of beer
From the sawdust-trampled street
With all its muddy feet that press
To early coffee-stands.
His soul stretched tight across the skies
That fade behind a city block,
Or trampled by insistent feet
At four and five and six o’clock;
And short square fingers stuffing pipes,
And evening newspapers, and eyes
Assured of certain certainties,
The conscience of a blackened street
Impatient to assume the world.
With the other masquerades
That times resumes,
One thinks of all the hands
That are raising dingy shades
In a thousand furnished rooms.
I am moved by fancies that are curled
Around these images, and cling:
The notion of some infinitely gentle
Infinitely suffering thing.
Wipe your hand across your mouth, and laugh;
The worlds revolve like ancient women
Gathering fuel in vacant lots.