Pharmakon
Ken Ueno
About this work:
Ken Ueno – Pharmakon
commisssioned by eighth blackbird
I. XOX
II. XXO
III. OXX
IV. Main Movement
Pharmakon is a work in four movements, but three are “pre-movements” which present exact windows into sections of the main movement. The “pre-movements” are designed to be played in any order (including before or after the main movement – it is preferred that OXX is played sometime before the main movement) and are labeled "XOX, XXO, OXX," which reflects the rotational mobility of the ordering in performance. All four movements together create a multiple-movement form that is actually part of one movement, cut-up. This structure is influenced by the phenomenological experience of interacting with the internet and cable television – a structure of non-linear modularity which disrupts the larger, linear narrative. The pre-movements are dramatically short in duration (2min., 58 secs., and 28 secs. long), which makes them more memorable, a gambit on which levels of referentiality in the main movement relies. Clear profiling of texture is another agent of referentiality. There are three basic textures which each of the pre-movements present - XOX is fast music, XXO is slow-sustaining music, and OXX is about syncopation. OXX is also presented on a boombox, reversing the role of mechanical representation of memory, in that a recording is heard before a live representation of the same music in the main movement.
Year composed: 2001
Duration: 00:19:00
Ensemble type: Chamber or Jazz Ensemble, Without Voice:Other Combinations, 6-9 players
Instrumentation: ,1 Flute soloist(s), ,1 Clarinet soloist(s), ,1 Marimba soloist(s), ,1 Piano soloist(s), ,1 Violin soloist(s), ,1 Cello soloist(s)
Instrumentation notes: Pierrot + percussion, fl. doubles piccolo & alto fl., cl. doubles bs. cl.