Rain Down
by Elena Ruehr
Divisi - Sheet Music

SATB choir (divisi) and piano - Intermediate

SKU: EC.6475

Composed by Elena Ruehr. 20th Century. Choral score. E.C. Schirmer Publishing #6475. Published by E.C. Schirmer Publishing (EC.6475).

ISBN 600313464751. UPC: 600313464751. 8.5" x 11" inches. English. Text: Mary Allen Solt.

Rain Down was written during the summer of 1989 as a work that could be performed by a good amateur choir. This piece is made of a continuous seven note pattern repeated within an eight beat structure. A floating quarter note syncopates and displaces the pattern within the measure. The pattern is transformed by a variety of musical operations, including octave doublings, register changes, and canons between the hands. The original pitches (A, D, G, C, E, F#, Bb) undergo transposition, inversion, retrograde, and retrograde inversion, occasionally with two forms of the pattern occurring at the same time. In addition, the pattern is truncated in the middle of the piece, and repeats every four eighth notes rather than every eight.

 

The structure of the choral entrances is also based on the pattern. Each voice enters at the same time and on the same pitch as that played by the piano. Monophonic lines, homophony, counterpoint, and imitation are created from the basic structure of the pattern. Even when the piano is absent, the structure of the pattern controls the entrances of the voices.

 

Mary Ellen Solt’s rain down is an example of concrete poetry. Its gradually changing repetitive patterns inspired the form of the music. Duration: 8:00.