tuba music with GR

[Jeffrey Stadelman]

Whaa...hmmm...?  Did someone say 'minor fourths'?!  Must be my cue..

Just saw Cort yesterday--he's a colleague in the Music Dept. here. A nice
recording of Solo Tuba Music is available on the Neuma label--
	New Music Series,Vol. 1
	Acton, MA
	CD# 450-71				

I've never heard/seen the piece live, but I'm sure it would be a scream
since just the recording is already very exciting and funny.  As I recall,
the Meggezone description in the wine-jellies 'n' Mrs. Quoad ("Disgusting
English Candy Drill") episoad is fragmented and delivered by the player,
mostly into the horn itself; thus, among other things effectively
depicting the unfortunate state of Slothrop's upper body ("Polar bears
seek toenail-holds up the freezing frosty-grape alveolar clusters in his
lungs."  etc).  I _believe_ (though I'm not sure of this) that the player
sits with his or her feet in a tray of sand, scratching out various
rhythms in counterpoint with the sounds produced by tuba and voice. 

The secondary sounds, which are plentiful in all of Cort's music I've
heard, are things like bell knocks, valve noises, mouthpiece pops,
multiphonics, air noise--the normally ignored or suppressed (preterite?) 
raw sounds available on the instrument.  I guess minor 4ths have been
suppressed too, so maybe...  ;-)  

I'd describe the general mood of the piece as frenzied, moving gradually
into desperation and panic, with an ironic glaze overall.  The basic idea,
to have the tuba serve as a kind of mute/amplifier/filter for the player's
voice and respiration (rather than, for instance, the usual muting of
brass instruments), is I think very rich in its implications for the
'setting' of this particular text.  Highly recommended! 

Jeff Stadelman
Williamsville, NY

ps	I've seen the CD at Tower Records in NY

On Mon, 1 Jul 1996, Rusty Dodson wrote:

> 
> I stumbled across this in the Univ. of CA card catalog.
> Has anybody in San Diego seen or heard this?
> (It's in the UCSD music library.)
> 
> --------------------------------------------------
> Search request: F PA T PYNCHON 
> Search result:  31 records at all libraries
> -----
> 2. MUSIC SCORE
> Author:        Lippe, Cort, 1953-
> Uniform title: Music, tuba.
> Title:         Solo tuba music (1987) : for tuba alone / Cort Lippe. [Raleigh,
>                  NC?] : Borik Press, [1992?], c1987.
> Description:   1 score (7 p.) ; 28 cm.
> Publisher No.: bp1122 Borik Press
> Notes:         Solo tuba player, in addition to conventional playing, makes
>                  secondary and percussive sounds, and vocal sounds which
>                  incorpoate text from Gravity's rainbow by Thomas Pynchon.
>                Includes program and performance notes and a composer biography.
> Subjects:      Pynchon, Thomas -- Musical settings.
>                Tuba music.
> Other entries: Pynchon, Thomas.
> Call numbers:  UCSD  Music     M97.L56 M8 1993 Stacks
> --------------------------------------------------
> 
> And what the hell are those "secondary" sounds, which are
> neither percussive, vocal, nor conventional tuba?
> Minor fourths perhaps?
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Rusty Dodson            dodson at mail.cor.epa.gov 
> (*) "Archie, Is this flummery?" -Nero Wolfe (*)        
>