Starting Work on Workers Union

Tonight was the first rehearsal of our group who are risking our fingers, our chops, and our minds to work on Workers Union by Louis Andriessen (see previous post).  Why do I seem to assume that this piece will kill us?  Well, for one, it's 20 minutes long.  And second of all, the first page of the score looks like this:

 

That's not even all of what we saw tonight on the cleaned-up professional version of the score.  But this piece is going to be SO FUN.  The ensemble is free to choose the instrumentation and we can turn the timbre of the piece into anything we want.  One interpretation can be found here in Bang On a Can's Version:

 

And we listened to another version from a modern music ensemble in LA.  The LA version had more percussion and a cluster of woodwinds and cello.  As a friend of mine said, it was very "metal and black".  I pictured it as a Dr. Seuss-esque keyboard instrument playing all the complex rhythms with a drum set.  Or maybe a one-man band..either way, after a while, I stopped hearing all the individual instruments as all the voices came together into one weird sound.  This strange hybrid instrument pervaded my imagination until near the end where different instruments came out of the texture to end the piece as individuals.

One last note on this piece, we definitely need more players! Right now, it's a flute, oboe, clarinet, piano, trombone, and either bassoon or electric guitar (Mark has to decide which to play).  But we could definitely use some percussionists!  And a saxophone? Trumpet?  If you're interested, email magauthier@vassar.edu and I'll get you in touch with our director.  Rehearsals are Tuesday nights from 9:30 PM- 11:30 PM in the Skinner Recital Hall.  And as always, you need to be Vassar student to participate.