Six Moving Guitars
Wandering
Circling
Circling, Alternating
Running
Pendulating

Fredrik Rasten (2018)

About the piece and overview of the sections
Six Moving Guitars investigates how the sound from several acoustic guitars can comprise a sounding choreography by means of rotation, pendulating, running and slow
walking while activating the strings of the instruments. It is also a study in how people, without necessarily being trained musicians, can act together in a musical situation based onawareness of listening and spatial orientation. The performers move around in the performance space, each playing a guitar in various ways using open strings (with or without capos) in
specific 5- or 7-limit just intonation tunings. The music is organized in three duos, with each duo playing patterns in rhythmic unison.

1. Wandering - standing in a row, the performers play a gradually developing motif as they slowly move forward, after a while spreading out, and wandering where they like.
2. Circling - The section starts with a solo where the soloist occasionally strums the strings while rotating around their own axis. The guitar body is pointing out from theperformer / centre of the axis, held up horizontally by the centrifugal force. The duo companion joins in similarly, following the chord impulses of the former while the two of themstart to move in a big circle, continuing to rotate around their respective axes.

3. Circling, Alternating - The second duo joins in with their open chords, echoing the first duo.
The third duo eventually joins in with a third echo, sometimes also transposed upwards using capos. The different duos play alternating chord patterns.

4. Running - The third duo starts to run / march in unison at a moderate tempo. After a while they strum chords relating to a 7/4 meter to the established running pulse.
The second duo starts running as well in the established tempo, adding their open chord on another beat in the 7/4-meter. The music ends with the two duos running out of the room
while still playing for a while, eventually coming to an end.

5. Pendulating - All performers stand in a slightly curved row, holding their guitars by the nut (top string bridge) while swinging their instruments with simultaneous movementsfrom one side to the other. On every 8th cycle of this coordinated pendulating movement (also directed with one of the performer´s cue) they are strumming all the strings together,collectively sounding a cluster chord containing almost all of the chords from the rest of the piece. Now and then, also on a cue, they let the chord ring for 16 cycles instead of 8,
allowing for a longer decay of the chord.

Notes on performing
In ‘Wandering’ the left hand and arm holds / embraces the guitar’s body while the right hand thumb or index finger plucks the strings.
For the other sections, the guitars are either held by the nut (where the strings enter the headstock) with the left hand and plucked with the right hand,or, for some of the performers, played in a normal position while sitting on the floor, plucking with the thumb of the right hand.
Throughout, the strings should be played with the “flesh” (i.e. not with a nail) of either thumb or index finger,
to make the tone as round and full as possible.
Also, for similar reasons, the strings should generally be struck around the 12th fret / around the middle of the string,but allow for variation. Activating the strings closer to the sound hole or between the sound hole and the bridge will make the higher frequencies and partials ring out more,while the fullness of the bass and midrange become less prominent.
The dynamic is quite consistent throughout - not very soft, not very loud, but resonant and clear.
The sounds of footsteps and other movements are natural parts of the music, but should not take too much focus.
Thus, for instance, wearing socks instead of shoes is preferred.
For most of this music it will be impossible to read the score in a normal way, therefore the score will need to be learnt by heart and / or through practice.

Notation
Wandering is the only section that utilizes normal staff notation to some extent, namely for the rhythmic unfolding of the music.
Instead of showing the pitches in a staff, each instrument has one line each where the note heads indicate the rhythmic aspect,
and where the numbers written over each notehead shows which string(s) to play.
For each new element introduced (identified by roman numerals), only the instruments and the place in the bar where the change takes place are notated.
The rest of the ensemble continue without changing. Text boxes connected to each of these variations also describe the changes involved.

Circling is notated with instructions and illustrations.
Circling, Alternating is notated with information-boxes looking like math-symbols / fractions (each identified by numbers in a circle) and arrows showing the succession of eachvariation.
Here is a description of the notation:
On the top the total number of instances of the specific part is written‘3&4’ - means ‘guitarist 3 and 4’‘3-6’ - means string 3-6‘x 1’ - means that this duo plays their chord once before the next duo plays their material‘---->’ (thin arrow) shows the succession of the duos within a specific variation‘---->’ (thick arrow) shows the succession of the different variations(‘1’) - also shows the temporal succession of the different variations

Running is notated with instructions and illustrations as well as the ‘fractions’ from ‘Circling, Alternating’ showing which duo play which combination of strings,
and where capos are used.

Pendulating is notated with instructions and illustrations.