Network
Kevin Puts (trans. Ryan Kelly)
General Info
Year: 1997 / 2013
Duration: c. 6:30
Difficulty: VII (see Ratings for explanation)
Publisher: Bill Holab Music
Cost: Score and Parts - Rental | Score Only - $75.00
Instrumentation
Full Score
C Piccolo I-II
Flute I-II
Oboe I-II
Bassoon I-II
Contrabassoon
E-flat Soprano Clarinet
B-flat Soprano Clarinet I-II-II (divisi a2)
B-flat Bass Clarinet
B-flat Soprano Saxophone
E-flat Alto Saxophone
B-flat Tenor Saxophone
E-flat Baritone Saxophone
B-flat Trumpet I-II-III-IV
Horn in F I-II-III-IV
Trombone I-II
Bass Trombone
Euphonium
Tuba
String Bass
Piano
Timpani
Percussion (5 players), including:
- Bass Drum (kick)
- Brake Drum
- Cowbell
- Crash Cymbals (large)
- Crotales
- Finger Cymbals
- Glockenspiel
- Marimba
- Metal Plate
- Snare Drum (piccolo)
- Suspended Cymbal (large)
- Tam-Tams (3; small, medium, and large)
- Triangle
- Vibraphone
- Wood Block
- Xylophone
Errata
None discovered thus far.
Program Notes
Though Puts says he has since adopted a more lyrical and romantic style, his sparkling, prismatic Network “represents the fascination I had while still a student with “minimalist” and “post-minimalist” composers (like Steve Reich, Phillip Glass, and John Adams) and the great beauty, freshness, and rhythmic energy of their work.” He describes this six-minute work in more detail:
“Network is a short, explosive fanfare that uses a recurring eight-voice canon of busy sixteenth notes to generate all the music in the piece. It is as if this “network” of melodic lines is always happening in the background, but only pieces of it are actually played at any given moment by the instruments in the orchestra. As I add sharps or flats to the canon at various places, the color of the harmony changes and demands changes in the orchestration, and these harmonic changes and the variations in orchestral sound that accompany them determine the shape of the piece.”
The resulting effect is as though different colored lights were pulsing and flashing off and on throughout the sections of the orchestra. Kevin Puts adds that, though his more recent compositions are often inspired by external events or by something he has read or heard, Network “wasn’t inspired by anything in particular. It is driven by the pure enjoyment of chords and rhythm and orchestral sounds.”
-Program Note (for symphonic version) from composer website
Network was commissioned by the California Symphony, and premiered in May 1997 with music Director Barry Jekowsky conducting. The version for wind ensemble was prepared by Ryan Kelly for the University of Texas Wind Ensemble in 2013.
- Program Note from Teaching Music through Performance in Band
Media
- Audio flash drive: University of Central Florida (Orlando) Wind Ensemble (Scott Lubaroff, conductor) – 2020
State Ratings
None discovered thus far.
Performances
To submit a performance please join The Wind Repertory Project
- University of Central Florida (Orlando) Symphonic Band (Scott Lubaroff, conductor) – 27 February 2020
- University of Central Florida (Orlando) Wind Ensemble (Tremon Kizer, conductor) – 21 February 2020 (CBDNA 2020 Southern Division Conference, Natchitoches, La.)
- Northwestern University (Evanston, Ill.) Symphonic Wind Ensemble (Daniel Cook, conductor) – 18 May 2019
- University of Miami (Fla.) Frost Wind Ensemble (Robert Carnochan, conductor) – 2 November 2015
- University of North Texas Wind Symphony (Eugene Migliaro Corporon, conductor) - 6 November 2014
- The Ohio State University Wind Symphony (Scott A. Jones, conductor) - 28 October 2014
Works for Winds by This Composer
- Charm (2012)
- Chorus of Light
- Elegy (arr. Ward) (2006/2011)
- Millennium Canons (arr. Spede) (2001/2003)
- Network (tr. Kelly) (1997/2013)