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Øyvind Mæland - Score and Technical Info - Boiling Web

Boiling Web (2020)


Score



Technical Info


Special requirements for concert programming and instrument:

  • A grand piano. It is important that the una corda pedal works properly (that the hammers strike one string less when depressed).
  • Approx. 8 minutes for de-tuning and piano preparation is required before the performance, and slightly less after the performance.


Use of microtonal techniques

I will rather thoroughly present the technical aspects of this piece, as there is quite a large variety of microtonal techniques in use, affecting more or less the entire range of the instrument.

The first of two pages of the score’s performance notes gives a clear overview of this (fig. 1), and the pitch areas that I have circled (and coloured), correspond to the colours of the following microtonal techniques[1]:

  • Unison string course scordatura (blue)
  • Prepared piano (red)
  • Use of the una corda pedal (purple)
  • Glissandi along strings when a corresponding key is pressed (green)
    (The area used for this is also prepared)
  • Glissandi along strings without any corresponding key being pressed (brown)

The areas that are not circled may be prepared, but then these preparations are not regarded as microtonal.


Fig. 1


  • Unison string course scordatura

    Fig. 2 (with sound)

    The 3 detuned pitches have different de-tunings:
    The Eb3 is just slightly low (a 1/6-tone), the G#4 is a quartertone low, while the Bb1 is lowered by a 1/3 tone (approx. 67 cents) and is mostly used to create a low beat tone in combination with A1, such as at the end of bar 123… (fig. 2)

    …or as in the example from bar 132, where the low above-mentioned pitches are combined with Ebs of different intonation.

    (Note that in the score, the microtones are notated as standard piano pitches.)


    The two extracts may be heard in succession:

  • Prepared piano

    Fig. 3: While the objects closest to agraffes (rubber and rubber piano tuner wedges) are there to half-mute the strings, the woolen wedges (white/orange) to remove as much of the pitch as possible, and the folded piece of cardboard (with some light blue tissue paper beneath it) to create a rattling noise, the remaining preparations result in microtonal sounds.

    As shown in fig. 3, the work requires various objects to prepare the strings, and here follows some comments to the microtonal preparations (from low to high range) :

    ♢ C#1: The stainless metal clothes peg should create a solid and microtonal “boing” (a coil spring or bell-like) sound, especially when played forte, as f.ex. in the very last bar of the piece.

    ♢ G1: This string course has a preparation on its left side letting both the fundamental and the 7th harmonic ring, while the woolen wedges on its right side contribute with percussive noise. More on this further below.

    ♢ C#2-F2: A rather heavy object (f.ex. a large rubber, such as the big blue object to the right in the picture) is placed across these strings so that it avoids the lower (and ringing) harmonics, but “random” pitches/fundamentals are acceptable. Because of the diagonal placement, a clear chromatisism is avoided:

  • Use of the una corda pedal

    Fig. 4 (with sound)

    The extract in Fig. 4 includes a specific use of una corda pedal, in addition to certain string preparations:

    ♢ The above-mentioned G1: The una corda pedal is used in order to radically change the timbre on the very same key - a percussive “white noise” when the pedal is depressed (because it hits only the strings prepared with woolen wedges) and a low tone rich in harmonics when released. The bass line in the beginning of the piece is a constant ticking noise, but when the pedal is gradually released, the pitch and its overtones become more and more prominent.

    ♢ H2-D5: This large range is prepared with a stripe of gaffer tape near the agraffes, to create a synth-like timbre, but it is also interesting how this also slightly affects the intonation (making it sound slightly lower). To avoid taping too close to the felt dampers, it may be better to tape near the agraffes on the opposite end of the strings.

  • Glissandi

    Fig. 5 (with sound)

    ♢ Eb5-E6: A piece of styrofoam is covering this range, and in addition to creating a hard but also slightly unpredictable sound, the styrofoam “confuses” the intonation (such as from bar 109). The styrofoam becomes even a lot more present in the section from around bar 233, when the tilting movement starts, resulting in rather aggressive sounds containing upward glissandi (fig. 5).

    ♢ Rubbing a superball mallet along the strings (as we can hear in the end of the following sound extract) creates voice-like howls, which indeed are highly microtonal, with all their unpredictable glissandi.
    One may listen to an extract here.

  1. Understandably, some of the areas may use more than just one microtonal technique, f.ex does the “green area” use its glissando (along strings) on prepared strings.