APPALACHIAN ANATOLIA (14th century)d'incise (2016)
For modified guitar
For Christian Alvear
With the support of Fondations
NICATI DE-LUZE and HENNEBERGER-MERCIER.

Strings set-up.
1. E normal string
2. E same string as 1.
3. G normal string
4. G same string as 3.
5. E same string as 6.
6. E normal string
Tuning (in just intonation for the 6., 4. and 2. strings)
1. F4+20, can be tuned up to F4+40 slowly during the piece
2. F4-14
3. G#3+60 (A3-40), can be tuned up to G#3+80 (A3-20) slowly during the piece
4. G#3+02
5. C#2+80 (D2-20), can be tuned up to D+50 slowly during the piece
6. C#2Octaves and cents derivations won't be indicated again on the score, notes always refers to the above tunings.
It's up to the player to play the guitare straight or horizontal.
40 minutes minimum, no maximum.

There is two types of material to be used and combined to play the piece.
A list of notes, and possible combinations of these notes.
A serie of recordings of "tradionnal" music (or music being part of a certain "folklore").
You should listen deeply and a lot of times the recordings, try to understand each of them, their specificities, their stories and contexts,
their technics, their rythms, their grooves, thier intonations, their moods, their accents.
The piece consist of improvising (or wahtever you want call it), usings only the given possibilities of notes and freely passing from one
reference to another.
The way to refer to the "tradionnal" musics is up to your interpretation, it must no be too obvious, they are more here as a reserve ofrythms, gestures, patterns, and intentions, and can appear as very short fragments or as long textures.
You must at least refer twice to each of them during the whole piece.
You can play singles notes, simultaneous notes, notes resonnating, repeated notes, arpeggiated notes, bended notes, or use any otherguitare technics.
It can be fast, or slow, or anyting in between.
There is no silence, but space inbetween notes can be very long, like a very very slow tempo.
Actions can be short, or long/sustained.
But it should always be played "as a raga", with a sens of whole, of continuity, of variations around a theme, one should feel a constantline, a constant flow, an endless exploration of combinations, a game with the rational and the ritual.
Everything is ways to make sound the special tuning of the guitare and the frictions or microtonal difference and melodies between thenotes., and ways to play the tuning with musical forms.
The volume of the piece should be relatively constant and low, but some expressivity is not forbided.
You are free to write yourslef any kind of complementary score from all this material and instructions.
The reference recordings are:Atahualpa Yupanqui - La Finadita(Campesino - Duerme Negrito, 1969)
Gamelans de Bali - Danse rituelle de cour d'amour(Louis Berthe, Bernard Yzerdraat – Musique Des Dieux, Musique Des Hommes - Gamelans
De Bali, 1966)
Guillaume de Machaut - Ballade. Dame ne regardes pas(Ensemble Gilles Binchois - Le vray remède d'amour, 1988)
Japan folk music - sado okesa(Smithsonian folkways, 1952)
Neil young - Guitar Solo 5(Dead man, ost, 1995)
Neset Ertas - Benim yurdum(Benim yurdum, 1995)
Nikhil Banerjee - raga bilaskhani todi ~ alap(Morning ragas bombay - aga bilaskhani todi, 1965)
Wade Ward - Shady Grove(High Atmosphere: Ballads and Banjo Tunes from Virginia and North Carolina Collected byJohn Cohen in November of 1965)

C# = open string – g# = play the corresponding partial on the string – G# = play the note , Octaves are indicated when relevant.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.

F
F
G#
G#
C#
C#

1. F#5
2. F#5
3. f#5
4. f#5
5.
6.

1.
2.
3. G#
4. G#
5. g#
6. g#

1. G#5
2. G#5
3. g#5
4. g#5
5.
6.

1. F
2. F
3.
4.
5. f
6. f

1. C7
2. C7
3. c7
4. c7
5.
6.

1. G#
2. G#
3.
4.
5. g#4
6. g#4

1. c
2. c
3.
4.
5.
6.

1. B
2. B
3.
4.
5. b4
6. b4
1. D#
2. D#
3. d#
4. d#
5.
6.

You can maybe find more relations of this type. As you can see it
is about to find unissons and near unisson beatings.

There are a few more possible actions which could appear, with a feeling of continuity, once during the piece.
Glass bowing, generating a relatively flat drone, on string.6.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5. C#
6. C# __________________________________________________________

Glass bowing, generating a relatively flat drone, on string.s.1
1. F____________________________________________________________
2. F
3.
4.
5.
6.

Glass bowing, generating a relatively flat drone, on all strings.
1. F_____________________________________________________________
2. F_____________________________________________________________
3. G#____________________________________________________________
4. G#____________________________________________________________
5. C#____________________________________________________________
6. C#____________________________________________________________

Play by agitating stochasticly and lightly a little rope over the strings
1. F ~ ~~ ~2. F ~~ ~ ~3. G# ~ ~ ~ ~4. G# ~ ~ ~~5. C# ~ ~~6. C# ~ ~~ ~