The latency issues experienced with most current group online internet sessions makes a lot of music difficult to deal with because of the time delays involved. This piece, composed in 2015, should be suitable for online group rehearsals where it is not necessary to play in time with each other.
This piece is for two or more players or singers and narrator with text by Emily Dickinson (1830-1886).
Instruments in C and singers may read from the score – shown here. The Score together with parts for transposing instruments and viola are available from Sheet Music Plus. A recording is on Spotify.
Play/hum in softest octave, instruments muted if possible. Each player starts and continues independently at their own slow tempo. All to have started by the time the first player reaches bar 9 (*). Each may choose any of the slur or paused note options ad lib. The narrator starts reading either before or after the players/singers have started and may leave substantial gaps between the verses. It is also acceptable for the narrator to end after the players/singers have finished playing. At the end, two players - who have finished before the others - slowly rustle plastic bags, or similar, and continue doing this for at least twenty-five seconds after the others have finished playing. If suitable amplification is available the narrator may whisper the text. An electronic echo effect may be added to the instruments. The piece may be performed without narrator.
I Died for Beauty – Emily Dickinson
I died for beauty, but was scarce Adjusted in the tomb, When one who died for truth was lain In an adjoining room. He questioned softly why I failed? "For beauty," I replied. "And I for truth - the two are one; We brethren are," he said. And so, as kinsmen met a-night, We talked between the rooms, Until the moss had reached our lips, And covered up our names.
Every couple of days I'll describe others of my pieces that can accommodate uncoordinated playing, moving previous pieces into the Blog, and will try to flag pieces by other composers that could work for online playing groups where latency is otherwise a problem. For example 'Tesknota' (1993) by Guy Klucevsek.