Memory

for four flutes and fixed media

Background:

            Memory was written for the 2019-2020 University of Georgia Flute Quartet; each movement is inspired by each respective flutist’s favorite memories and sounds. I composed melodies, rhythms, and textures that made me think of each movement’s memory and then incorporated sampled sounds in the fixed media backing tracks as percussive, emotional elements to help depict each story. 

The first movement, “Backyard,” tells the story of Shana Stone’s childhood visits to her grandmother’s southern Georgia home. As Shana recounts, 

“I’m in my grandmother’s backyard playing with my sister. It’s beyond hot, and the gnats are terrible, but the faint sound of traffic on the highway and the sound of insects buzzing/humming is strangely soothing. We take turns running races around the yard and climbing the old cedar tree, cracking pecans, and my sister spins another magical story for me as our lopsided mound of sticks becomes a grand fortress and lines of rocks become brave knights.”[1]

Her favorite sounds in the world are bubbling streams and the wind rustling through trees, so I opened the movement with stream and birdsong samples. If you listen closely, you will hear that the rhythm in the birdsong is echoed in the flute sextuplets, heard first in the third flute and then in the alto flute part. Sampled bird chirps are a recurring motive, often timed with third octave grace note chirps in the flutes. The cicada enters, its crescendi and decrescendi copied in the flutes’ hairpins in the beginning and throughout the movement. The texture of singing cicadas is also mimicked through flutter tongued sustained notes towards the middle of the vignette. Giggling children skip through the movement, immersing the audience in Shana’s vivid memory. 

“Shore,” Memory’s second movement, captures Hannah Peterson’s favorite family trips spent camping and hiking on untouched barrier islands off the coast of Georgia. From the beginning of the movement, I used the sampled crunch of hiking boots as the driving rhythmic element. Since she loves the sound of waves crashing on the beach, I included sampled ocean waves ebbing and flowing throughout her movement. This ebb and flow is echoed in the sustained notes passed between the flutes. Hannah is also an avid reader; one of the most relaxing beach activities is reading a good book while sipping a cool lemonade under a big, shady umbrella listening to the crashing waves. Sampled page flips intersperse themselves amongst her footfalls. As a Music Theory Double Major, Hannah had one special request: incorporate the sound of a Major I chord moving to a flat-VI chord. This is her favorite chord progression so I put it everywhere I could in this movement. 

The third movement, “Backstage,” evokes Blake Hattaway’s fond holiday memories dancing in Tchaikovsky’s The Nutcracker. It is a peek behind the curtain at showtime, complete with audio from the stage manager’s light cues, samples of quiet giggles, whispered shushes, and awed exclamations from children spotting the adult cast about to take the stage. The melody and form in this movement are based on the Dance of the Mirlitons, a number in The Nutcracker during which the orchestral flutes shine in three-part harmony. Whereas other movements might have afforded some flexibility in rhythm and pulse, it is imperative that the parts remain crisply locked together throughout this movement in Tchaikovsky-esque precision. At Rehearsal L however, the texture changes and becomes more ethereal, setting the stage for the alto flute’s contrasting melody. All other flute parts should strive to play as quietly as possible underneath this melody since the alto flute sings in its low- to middle-register at first. 

Finally, in “Marketplace” Vicki Lu’s favorite memories from her travels to China with her mom take the form of a fast-paced movement inspired by Chinese folk songs and one of Vicki’s favorite sounds: a busy market. Vicki is a talented dizi performer and her recording of Yang Bian Chue Ma Song Lan Man helped guide the techniques used in this movement including trills, note bends, rhythm, and harmony. I also turned to a collection of popular Chinese folk songs, arranged for schoolchildren in New York City and westernized as little as possible, in order to better understand traditional melodies and scalar relationships between notes.[2] According to Yung-Ching Yeh et. al., the most common traditional scale was the pentatonic scale and the focus was on the melody as opposed to harmony.[3] Based on this information, I wrote many unison passages between pairs of flutes in this movement and focused on pentatonic note relationships. 

The story of this fourth movement is also told through samples in the fixed media track. Travels begin with the whoosh of a commercial airplane’s take-off and continue with cabin seatbelt dings, the pilot’s welcome, and airport luggage announcements told in different languages. From there the audience is immersed in sounds made by Vicki’s transportation methods of choice within China, including sounds from the subway and pedaling fast on a bicycle. Performers should listen for instances when samples in the fixed media track line up with musical elements in the flute parts; the dinging of a bicycle bell consistently lines up with syncopated accents heard in the flutes, as well as quiet seatbelt dings echoed from the airplane. 

Equipment:

Performing Memory live most likely calls for the use of a click track. A click track is a customized metronome that only the performers can hear. It should begin playing at the same time as the fixed media backing track so that players and backing track are in sync. Closed-back headphones for each performer will be necessary to avoid audible click track sounds from the audience. The performers will need a computer running software routing the fixed media track to speakers and the click track to the performers’ headphones simultaneously. This means sending the fixed media track to stereo outputs 1/2 connected to the speakers, and sending the click track to stereo outputs 3/4 connected to a headphone amplifier or headphone splitter. To sum up, this is the basic equipment you will need to perform Memory:

·      A computer

·      A Digital Audio Workstation (DAW) to play the fixed media track and click track from

·      An audio interface or small mixer with at least 4 1/4” analog outputs. An example of a suitable audio interface for performing with fixed media, click track, and four live-amplified flutes would be the Focusrite Scarlett 18i8 USB Audio Interface. Using this option, live flute reverb can be added using your preferred DAW. A headphone amplifier with four channels will also be necessary when using this audio interface. A more cost-effective solution for live performance with four amplified flutes, fixed media, and click track would be to use a compact mixer instead of an audio interface. An example of a suitable compact mixer for performing with fixed media that also enables the addition of live reverb and adjustable EQ and panning would be the Mackie Mix12FX 12-channel Compact Mixer with Effects. Both of the above options require the use of a headphone amplifier or splitter in order to route click tracks to four performers, but if one wanted to avoid use of a headphone amp/splitter, the PreSonus Studio 1810c USB-C Audio Interface is a high-quality option with many capabilities.

·      A set of speakers connected to the audio interface/mixer directed towards the audience

·      A headphone amplifier with at least four channels (one for each performer to connect headphones to) plugged into the audio interface/mixer. An example of a suitable headphone amplifier for performing with fixed media, click track, and four flutes would be the Behringer MicroAMP HA400 4-channel Headphone Amplifier. This particular headphone amplifier allows each performer control over his/her click track volume. 

·      Closed-back headphones for each performer.

·      (Optional) If performing Memory with live flute amplification, use four dynamic microphones (one for each performer) on microphone stands connected via XLR cables to your audio interface or mixer with four XLR inputs. 

[1] Shana Stone, social media message to author, October 3, 2019.

[2] Yung-Ching Yeh, ed., Chinese Folk Songs, trans. Shiah Mann (New York, NY: Art Resources for Teachers and Students, Inc., 1972).

[3] Ibid..