|
Please DONATE to help with maintenance and upkeep of the Wind Repertory Project!
|
Bioplasm
Alex Shapiro (edit. Michelle Grondin)
General Info
Year: 2004 / 2012
Duration: c. 12:00
Difficulty: VI (see Ratings for explanation)
Original Medium: Flute Quartet
Publisher: Activist Music
Cost: Score and Parts (print) - $70.00; (digital) - $50.00 | Score Only (print) - $35.00; (digital) - $15.00
Instrumentation
Full Score
C Flute I-VII
Alto Flute I-II
Bass Flute I-II
Errata
None discovered thus far.
Program Notes
I named this piece Bioplasm because "Oozing Up From the Primordial Sludge" seemed a bit long for a title. Bioplasm is the stuff of life, the germinal matter that's essential for living beings to generate.
This is a squishy piece: rather than exploit the individual voice of each flute, I wanted to create an organism that oozes across the sonic floor as one tethered entity, sometimes slowly, sometimes at a quick pace, but always as one, like a Slinky toy. The blend of homogeneous sound with four flutes is a throbbing pulse of life; add to this human voices, and it's a choir of plasma, looking for life to begin.
One of my heroes of both life science and the human condition was Lewis Thomas, author of many marvelous essays about our fragile planet. I happened to be reading one of his books, Late Night Thoughts on Listening to Mahler's Ninth Symphony, as I began composing this piece at the MacDowell Colony in the fall of 2003, and reading his timeless observations moved me greatly. I dedicate this piece to his memory.
Ms. Grondin’s flute choir setting of Bioplasm takes the "choir of plasma" to a whole new level. The re-orchestration has the ensemble morphing between two voicing sets, reminiscent of the original flute quartet voicing, in addition to including a few solo sections in which players slowly reunite with the choir. The ever-changing textures provide a constantly changing sound environment.
- Program Note by composer
Award Winners
- Music Teacher National Association, 2005
Commercial Discography
- Audio CD: Los Angeles Flute Quartet - 2005
Media
State Ratings
None discovered thus far.
Performances
To submit a performance please join The Wind Repertory Project
- Michelle Grondin, conductor – 30 April 2012 *Premiere Performance*
Works for Winds by This Composer
Adaptable Music
- Count to Ten (Adaptable Band) (2021)
- Kitchen Sync (Adaptable Band) (2021)
- Kitchen Sync. See also: Suite Treats
- Passages (Adaptable Band) (2020)
All Wind Works
- Ascent (2020)
- Beneath. See: Immersion (2010)
- Bioplasm (flute choir) (2004/2012)
- Bioplasm (flute quartet) (2004)
- Breathe (2020)
- Count to Ten (Adaptable Band) (2021)
- Depth. See: Immersion
- Even Deeper (2014)
- Free (2022)
- Homecoming (2008)
- Immersion (2010)
- Kitchen Sync (Adaptable Band) (2021)
- Kitchen Sync. See also: Suite Treats
- Lights Out (2015)
- Liquid Compass (2014)
- Moment (2016)
- Off the Edge (2019)
- Paper Cut (2010)
- Passages (Adaptable Band) (2020)
- Pop Music (2022)
- Rock Music (2016)
- Surface. See: Immersion (2010)
- Suspended (2021)
- Tight Squeeze (2012)
- Train of Thought (sextet) (2015)
- Trains of Thought (concert band) (2015/2017)
Resources
- Alex Shapiro website Accessed 6 July 2020
- Perusal score
- Shapiro, A.; Grondin, M. (2012). Bioplasm: For Flute Choir [score]. Activist Music: [Friday Harbor, Wash.]