12.5.83 for solo recorder
by Drake Mabry
Alto Recorder - Digital Sheet Music

Alto Recorder,Recorder Solo - Level 4 - Digital Download

SKU: A0.799451

Composed by Drake Mabry. 20th Century,Contemporary. Individual part. 12 pages. Drake Mabry #1749805. Published by Drake Mabry (A0.799451).

12.5.83 was begun in London in 1977 and finished on December 5, 1983 in Shelburne, Vermont. The title is the completion date of the piece. I wrote this for a copy of a Denner alto recorder made by Friedrich von Huene and pitched at A=415. In three movements, slow – fast – slow, the recorder demonstrates numerous 20th century techniques and incorporates the player's voice with the sounds of the instrument. The first movement combines highly charged electric passages alternating with calm static ones. The second movement was inspired by a musical illusion found in the second movement of a Telemann recorder sonata in C major. In the Telemann piece, there is the impression of two recorders playing due to the alternations between registers of the recorder. In my piece, there is a continual rapid ppp passage on which louder short passages are superposed creating the illusion of two players – one ppp and one f. The third movement is primarily a meditation including several reminders from the previous two movements. The coda has the player singing while playing with the voice moving slowly in oblique and contrasting directions. A highly virtuosic work, I premiered this piece at the IRCAM center in Paris on December 4, 1984. It has since been performed widely on both sides of the Atlantic. The Mp3 recording is from one of my live performances. There are slight differences between the score and the performance due to several changes made after the performance as well as the excitement of playing "live". The duration is about 6'30.