Fredrik Rasten

Murmurations
VI-XII (2021)

Thoughts on instrumentation:
All the Murmurations are composed as solo performer pieces for a special adapted fretless acoustic guitar with movablebridges, played with three e-bows on one guitar.
I-V is for one guitar plus voice, while VI-XII is for two guitars.
However, the piece can be realized by any instrumentation capable of producing up to six simultaneously sounding
sustained pitches in the specified registers (see ‘pitch ranges’ below).
A somehow timbral similarity between the instruments (or voices) is favoured, but not an absolute requirement.
For instance, a sextet of strings would work well (with the order of voices as in score):
1 - violin / viola
2 - violin / viola
3 - cello
4 - violin / viola
5 - violin / viola
6- cello
Possibly, the piece can also be realized with fewer string instruments by using double stops on violin / viola, (maybeeven on cello). For instance - the 1st and 2nd voice or the 4th and 5th voice can probably be combined.
These matters are yet to be researched.

Notes / Instructions:
Each succeeding part (VII through XII), harmonically starts off where the preceding part ends.
Hence, if more than one part is played, the order should generally be obtained.
However, one can also feel free to combine the parts as wanted.
There are no note values in the score, but for any of the voices, a note or pause lasts until it is succeeded by a new noteor pause in the given voice.
Note durations are free / flexible, and the graphic spacing between notes is generally not a guide to the pace of themusic, but merely showing the succession of the note or pause entries.
The music should unfold with a focus on stability of tuning, combined with a sense of melodic movement.
Each sonority should last long enough to be tuned and then perceived for a while in their “tuned state”, but without
the music ending up being too static - it should have a sense of forward movement. When a sonority is difficult to tune,
take your time to adjust. The searching and fine tuning is an intrinsic musical and human part of this music.
When the tuning is stabilized, take some seconds to dwell in the tuned sonority. As a general rule - more time should bespent in the intended, tuned sonority than in the searching / tuning process.
When a change occurs within one part, the movement can generally be a little bit faster, like a melodic phrase.
The end of a note should primarily be followed by a little pause (a few seconds long) before entering the new note.
However, glissandi between the notes, with or without a little pause between them, is a viable variation.
Cent deviations from 12-tone equal temperament are written under each note.
The accidentals belong to the Extended Helmholtz-Ellis JI pitch notation by Marc Sabat
and Wolfgang von Schweinitz.
More information about the accidentals: http://www.marcsabat.com/pdfs/notation.pdf

Symbols and signs:
1 - Connecting lines / arrows show the succession of the notes where the narrowness of the graphical spacing makes it
potentially hard to read (note that the graphical narrowness is accidental / random, and hence not a guide to themusical pace, which is free):2 - Bidirectional arrows between notes signify a crossfade between the two notes in question, meaning that note 1 entersby a fade-in while note 2 is already sounding - then they sound for a while together before note 2 fades out as
note 1 keeps sounding. This process is repeated a few (between 3 to 6) times ad lib.
Legato bows and / or pauses show how the music proceeds after this process, either with one of them or with bothnotes sounding.

3 - In Murmurations XI, the ‘crossfade’ described above occurs not between two notes, but between two groups
consisting of two notes each:

4 - At one occasion in Murmurations X a note occurs in double parentheses. Simply told, this note is optional.
Furthermore, it means that the note can either occur ad lib (until a pause occurs in this voice), but only after a newchange / sonority is already stable and in tune, or it can be omitted completely.

Pitch ranges
highest to lowest note in each voice (shown by excerpts from the score)

1st voice from top:

2nd voice from top:

3rd voice from top:4th voice from top:

5th voice from top:

6th voice from top: