Cavern

Joel Matthys

Subtitle: For Flexible Band

General Info

Year: 2020
Duration: c. 6:25
Difficulty: (see Ratings for explanation)
Publisher: Murphy Music Press
Cost: Score and Parts (print) - $65.00 | Score Only (print) - $20.00

Instrumentation (Flexible)

Full Score
Part 1

Piccolo
Flute I
Oboe
B-flat Soprano Clarinet I
B-flat Trumpet I

Part 2

Flute II
B-flat Soprano Clarinet II
B-flat Trumpet II

Part 3

E-flat Alto Saxophone
Horn in F I

Part 4

B-flat Tenor Saxophone
Horn in F II

Part 5

Trombone
Euphonium

Part 6

Bassoon
B-flat Bass Clarinet
E-flat Baritone Saxophone
Tuba
Piano I-II

Timpani
Percussion I-II, including:

Bass Drum
Glockenspiel
Hi-Hat
Shakers
Suspended Cymbal
Triangle

Errata

None discovered thus far.

Program Notes

In the summer of 2018, I rented a tiny house for a personal composition retreat in the town of Fairfield, Iowa. I brought along a keyboard and laptop, and spent most of the time playing around with shifting arpeggiation patterns programmed in the computer. After a week I left with little more than a few bars of textual music and a glimmer of a harmonic idea. On the way back to my home in Wisconsin I passed Cave of the Mounds, and I thought about how the music I'd written felt somehow crystalline, like the inside of a geode. Only much later did I figure out how to marry the music with a chorale that evokes endless depth and grandeur, alternating with intimate spaces, drips, echoes – a place of discovery and wonder.

- Program Note by composer

Composed for the World Association of Symphonic Bands and Ensembles Flex-Band Series.

- Program Note from score

Performance Notes

The echoing motive (m. 29-31 in the pianos and in various parts in m. 79-92) should start on the notated beat but need not coordinate the rhythm with the ensemble. The solo passages should be assigned to individuals prior to rehearsal, since they are written in multiple parts.

At the conductor's discretion, the percussionist playing the Hi-Hat part at letters D and I may deviate from the notated part to improvise in the style of the written part, with running sixteenths embellished with accented 32nd notes, similar to trap style.

The trills at letter G should grow gradually more sparse, with the players dropping out at different times to form a natural decrescendo.

Media

Audio: Reference recording. MIDI realization

State Ratings

None discovered thus far.

Performances

To submit a performance please join The Wind Repertory Project

Works for Winds by This Composer

Adaptable Music

Cavern (Flex instrumentation) (2020)

All Wind Works

Cavern (Flex instrumentation) (2020)

Resources

Perusal score
Joel Matthys website Accessed 26 August 2020