Alarm Will Sound | "Test of Time" by Don Freund performed by Alarm Will Sound @alarmwillsound | Uploaded June 2023 | Updated October 2024, 7 hours ago.
Recorded at the 2022 Mizzou International Composers Festival at the University of Missouri (David Myers, AV Director).
Sponsored by the Mizzou New Music Initiative with funding from the Sinquefield Charitable Foundation.
Notes from the composer:
In order to appropriately describe this piece, the two nouns in "Test of Time" should be plural. Not only are there all kinds of tests, but there is also a variety of ways of perceiving time that are challenged in the course of the piece. How long can rhythmic groove retain its momentum against interruptions and juxtapositions? How do beats and syncopations change their syntax when shifted or superimposed? How can microsecond subdivisions of a beat be reconfigured into unpredictable patterns that can still be felt as rhythmically tight? When musical events are frozen and cut-and-pasted out of context, are they perceived as existing independently in their own non-directional time-world? Can the four-phrase tune of the solo tuba prologue pass the test of time and be recognized when it reappears ten minutes later? Can the metrical implications of this tune still be appreciated when it played by the brass in a free-sounding rhythm superimposed over a driving 9/16 torrent in the rest of the ensemble? When — at the end of the piece (spoiler alert!) — the tune is played by solo flute over a tapestry of bells, will the listener recognize on some intuitive level that the notes of each phrase are played backwards although the ordering of the phrases is forward?
I have for a long time considered the one-on-a-part (two violins) chamber sinfonietta to be nature's perfect musical ensemble. No other ensemble could provide at the same time the timbral variety and turn-on-a-dime agility needed to execute a piece like "Test of Time." I've included tuba and alto saxophone, instruments too often neglected in this medium. I have also avoided using standard percussion instruments, replacing bass drum and tom-toms with log drums, the surdo (Brazilian carnival drum), and the cajon (Afro-Peruvian wood box drum), and writing for almglocken (tuned cowbells) and singing bowls in place of marimba and vibraphone.
From the beginning of the tuba prologue to the final wa-wa decay of the spring drum, around fifteen minutes will have expired in the outside world. I hope that those of us inside "Test of Time" will have experienced a universe of time dimensions totally apart from that.
Alarm Will Sound:
Erin Lesser, flute
Christa Robinson, oboe
Bill Kalinkos, clarinet
Elisabeth Stimpert, clarinet
Michael Harley, bassoon
Laura Weiner, horn
Tim Leopold, trumpet
Michael Clayville, trombone
Chris P. Thompson, percussion
Matt Smallcomb, percussion
John Orfe, piano
Courtney Orlando, violin
Stefan Freund, cello
Miles Brown, bass
Daniel Neumann, Audio Engineer
Alan Pierson, conductor and Artistic Director
Gavin Chuck, Executive Director
Peter Ferry, Assistant Director of Artistic Planning
Jason Varvaro, Production Manager
Annie Toth, General Manager
Tracy Mendez, Development Manager
Michael Clayville, Director of Marketing
Bill Kalinkos, Librarian
Special thanks to Nicolee Kuester (horn), Theo Learnard (tuba), Alexandros Fragiskatos (percussion), Yvonne Lam (violin), and Gillian Gallagher (viola) for their contributions to this performance.
Recorded at the 2022 Mizzou International Composers Festival at the University of Missouri (David Myers, AV Director).
Sponsored by the Mizzou New Music Initiative with funding from the Sinquefield Charitable Foundation.
Notes from the composer:
In order to appropriately describe this piece, the two nouns in "Test of Time" should be plural. Not only are there all kinds of tests, but there is also a variety of ways of perceiving time that are challenged in the course of the piece. How long can rhythmic groove retain its momentum against interruptions and juxtapositions? How do beats and syncopations change their syntax when shifted or superimposed? How can microsecond subdivisions of a beat be reconfigured into unpredictable patterns that can still be felt as rhythmically tight? When musical events are frozen and cut-and-pasted out of context, are they perceived as existing independently in their own non-directional time-world? Can the four-phrase tune of the solo tuba prologue pass the test of time and be recognized when it reappears ten minutes later? Can the metrical implications of this tune still be appreciated when it played by the brass in a free-sounding rhythm superimposed over a driving 9/16 torrent in the rest of the ensemble? When — at the end of the piece (spoiler alert!) — the tune is played by solo flute over a tapestry of bells, will the listener recognize on some intuitive level that the notes of each phrase are played backwards although the ordering of the phrases is forward?
I have for a long time considered the one-on-a-part (two violins) chamber sinfonietta to be nature's perfect musical ensemble. No other ensemble could provide at the same time the timbral variety and turn-on-a-dime agility needed to execute a piece like "Test of Time." I've included tuba and alto saxophone, instruments too often neglected in this medium. I have also avoided using standard percussion instruments, replacing bass drum and tom-toms with log drums, the surdo (Brazilian carnival drum), and the cajon (Afro-Peruvian wood box drum), and writing for almglocken (tuned cowbells) and singing bowls in place of marimba and vibraphone.
From the beginning of the tuba prologue to the final wa-wa decay of the spring drum, around fifteen minutes will have expired in the outside world. I hope that those of us inside "Test of Time" will have experienced a universe of time dimensions totally apart from that.
Alarm Will Sound:
Erin Lesser, flute
Christa Robinson, oboe
Bill Kalinkos, clarinet
Elisabeth Stimpert, clarinet
Michael Harley, bassoon
Laura Weiner, horn
Tim Leopold, trumpet
Michael Clayville, trombone
Chris P. Thompson, percussion
Matt Smallcomb, percussion
John Orfe, piano
Courtney Orlando, violin
Stefan Freund, cello
Miles Brown, bass
Daniel Neumann, Audio Engineer
Alan Pierson, conductor and Artistic Director
Gavin Chuck, Executive Director
Peter Ferry, Assistant Director of Artistic Planning
Jason Varvaro, Production Manager
Annie Toth, General Manager
Tracy Mendez, Development Manager
Michael Clayville, Director of Marketing
Bill Kalinkos, Librarian
Special thanks to Nicolee Kuester (horn), Theo Learnard (tuba), Alexandros Fragiskatos (percussion), Yvonne Lam (violin), and Gillian Gallagher (viola) for their contributions to this performance.
