Fluid, Stone, and Heresy
Michael Wittgraf
About this work:
Fluid, Stone, and Heresy, completed in 2000 for MeloMania!, exploits the fundamental differences between the fluidity of improvisation and the stonelike inflexibility of a recording. Heresy appears in the combination of these seemingly irreconcilable forces. On a more personal note, the music represents the composer’s own liberal religious and spiritual thought in conflict with traditional religious dogma. The beliefs of the composer are most certainly heretical when applied to traditional beliefs that surround him and permeate his culture.
In the opening third of the work, the performers improvise over a recorded cloud of sound, interrupted occasionally by short punctuations “mimicking” the performers. One of the interruptions is a jazz bebop lick, anticipation the middle of the work, which is essentially a very long, atonal line in the style of Charles Mingus. Ironically, this bebop line is the only extended length of time during which the performers do not improvise. The final third of the work borrows the improvisational techniques of the opening, but uses long tones instead of short punctuations. Parts of the long bebop lick return at the end.
Year composed: 2000
Duration: 00:18:00
Ensemble type: Chamber or Jazz Ensemble, Without Voice:Other Combinations, 2-5 players
Instrumentation: 1 Soprano Saxophone, 1 Tenor Saxophone, 1 Marimba, 1 Piano, 1 Cello, 1 Prerecorded Sound (Tape/CD/Other)
Instrumentation notes: ONe saxophonist, doubling soprano and tenor; violoncello is amplified; marimba part includes several cymbals.