Charlie's Blues (piano, double bass, percussion)

Audio sample (.mp3)

Score sample (.pdf - Click here to acquire Adobe Acrobat Reader)

Performance Instructions

Program Notes:

Charlie's Blues is a serial work that was written for Charles Gustafson, a composer and jazz pianist living in San Francisco. The notation is designed to provide the performers with the greatest possible latitude of expression. At times the pitches are free and the rhythmic relations are specified; at other times the rhythms are free and the pitches are notated. Transpositions and permutations of the twelve-tone row determine the order of all pitches and govern other aspects of the composition as well. Fixed registration (certain pitches heard only in particular registers) is used to sectionalize the piece and aid in stressing certain pitches (tonal areas). Durational aspects and dynamics are also dependent upon the manipulation of the series. Particular intervals are emphasized in various sections. Symmetrical relationships are expressed in the form of the piece and on local levels. Many times these relationships are exact palindromes and are expressed durationally, texturally, and dynamically as well as intervalically.The formal features of the work are symmetrical.

If you are interested in acquiring complete performance materials for this piece, please contact me by email (kindly include your phone number).

s-syverud@northwestern.edu

I will request a small handling fee to cover printing and shipping costs.