Vital Signs
David Heuser
About this work:
Vital Signs is based on an actual graph of four parameters over time: temperature, pulse, systolic blood pressure and diastolic blood pressure. By accident, the data was left unsorted, and the plat that was produced was a jumbled mess.
In writing this work, I assigned each instrument a starting point on the graph and a "key-code" by which the numbers representing the four parameters would be translated into pitch-classes (and sometimes rests). All three instruments follow the same path through the graph, creating a contour canon of sorts, but since the rhythms are chosen without consulting the plot, and the pitches determined are pitch-classes (without specific interval relationships), this is a theoretical canon, not easily heard - and not really meant to be heard.
The music is marked by two persistent elements presented in the beginning of the piece: 1) a sustained pitch (or two sustained pitches) against a moving line and 2) a pair of diads. The sustained pitches (which derive from a particular quality of this goofy graph) delineate the sections of the piece. The rising diads are presented in one instrument initially, but later they are played between two instruments.
Vital Signs was written in July of 1991. The piece is approximately four minutes long. Special thanks to Cherie Wilson for creating the graph.
Year composed: 1991
Duration: 00:04:00
Ensemble type: Chamber or Jazz Ensemble, Without Voice:Other Combinations, 2-5 players
Instrumentation: 2 Violin, 1 Cello