Pauline Oliveros - Four Meditations for Orchestra

Today was our second session trialing this work for a concert in December. We played through the first couple of movements; I've included a copy of the performance directions below.

 







So far, I'm very impressed with this work and the way in which it encourages performers to collaborate. I particularly like that the first movement makes room for periods of silence (something that I have come to appreciate of late) therefore giving each performer the chance to digest and absorb the previous sound whilst choosing whether to contribute or not. As someone who likes to think before making a sound, I find that this work has a lot more room for reflection, hence Four Meditations for Orchestra. There is something different about the atmosphere that performing this piece creates, because it doesn't feel like I have to 'jump' in with my contribution whilst I have the chance. That pressure is removed entirely.

This presents a different challenge though, of trying to avoid the temptation of pre-choosing a sound and just waiting for a chance to play it. The score seems to be asking for a collaborative, thoughtful process toward real-time composition, so thinking of a sound minutes before I play it regardless of what is played in between seems contradictory. What I tried to achieve was a balance, a more meditative approach of just playing more instinctively. I don't think I have quite achieved it yet! Maybe next time...

The second movement is just beautiful, or was today when we played it. There is something very simple and satisfying about the blend of sustained tones - It reminded me very much of Oliveros's performance with the Deep Listening Band which I've included below (the performance in question is the first one in this video).

What makes the second movement challenging from a technical perspective was recognising a pitch and actually playing the same tone without sneaking in a practice pitch that no one hears! We had already agreed that once we had begun to play a pitch we were to commit to it, regardless as to whether it was what we intended, so this in itself had some interesting results. It is very thoughtful of the composer to almost write these little accidents into the score; 'invent a pitch of your own'.

Next week we will attempt the third and forth movements, the third in particular looks like fun. This one does include some very instinctive reactions, almost as a direct opposite of the first. Maybe now she feels we are ready for it...

We'll see!