CLANG for orchestra by James Tenney June, 1972 SMITH PUBLICATIONS AMERICAN MUSICCLANG for orchestra GENERAL INSTRUCTIONS ‘The conductor will give ordinary downbeats for the percussive “clangs" in sections 1a and 8a, and will conduct metrically in section 17. At other times his task will be to in dicate the beginning of each new section, using a stopwatch. In sections 1b through 7, and 8b through 16, the notation indicates available pitches to be played by sustained tone instruments (including rolls on the percussion instruments) in the following way each player chooses, at random, one after another of these available pitches (when with- in the range of his or her instrument), end plays it beginning very softly (almost inau~ dibly), gradually increasing the intensity to the dynamic level indicated for that section, then gradually decreasing the intensity again to inaudibility (e.g., ppp-—< partial represented: ye‘With conventional tempered tuning, the approximation is fair for partials number 1, 17, 19, § and 3, but poor for partials number 11, 13 and 7. In order to improve the approxi— mation for these three partials, accidentals in parentheses are used to indicate a raising or lowering of the natural note by about a quarter tone, instead of the full semitone, (ncidentally, the score is "in C", and all the players will be reading from copies of the score itself, $0 transposing instruments will have to transpose their own parts to produce the available pitches correctly, as written.) Great precision is obviously not expected here — in fact, the beats resulting from slight discrepancies from the actual harmonic frequencies are welcome —but an effort should be made to improve the approximation as much as is possible or practical, especially in sections 8b through 16, where the ac~ tual distribution of the available pitches represents the harmonic series on successively higher E ‘SPECIAL INSTRUCTIONS FOR PERCUSSION AND PIANO Sustain the first "clang" until it has become inaudible, then join the sustained-tone in- struments by playing crescendo-diminuendo rolls on "available pitches" as follows: Percussion I - tacet until section 3, then play directly on the piano strings (with soft sticks) as dampers are silently raised by the pianist; Percussion II - tacet until section 2, then with soft sticks (still on the vibraphone); Percussion III - tacet until section 4, then occasional rolls (with soft sticks) on sus~ pended cymbals and tam-tams (as many different sizes as may be available; Percussion IV - the gong used in the three "clangs" should be one sounding E, if such is available, and in any case should be a large one. After the first "clang", tacet until section 5, then play occasional rolls on the timpani (Ideally, 3 with pedal mechanisms); Piano -tacet until section 3, then press down silently one after another of the “avail- able pitches", to be played by Percussion I directly on the strings. Be sure to hold each key down long enough for the tone to fade out after the percussion player finishes his roll on the string. ALL PLAYERS: Take whatever time necessary to prepare for the second "clang" (section 8a), which will be cued by the conductor, and should be as "clangorous" as possible. Play sections 8b through 16 as described above for earlier sections. ADDITIONAL NOTES (FOR THE CONDUCTOR) 1, One-half of each group of identical strings should use mutes, to increase the variety of timbres in the orchestra. Similarly, trumpets, trombones and French horns may use various kinds of muting (straight, cup, hand-stopping, etc.) in addition to the open tone. For the same reason use at least one auxiliary instrument in each woodwind group (e.g, piccolo and/or alto flute, English horn, contrabassoon, etc.) whenever possible or prac tical. 2. Let section 1b be played by the following “first desk" instruments only: flute, oboe, BP clarinet, bassoon, French horn (alternating, at random, between open, muted and hand~stopped tones), trumpet (alternating between open, straight mute and cup mute timbres), trombone (alternating between open and muted tones), one first violin (non muted), one second violin (muted), two violas (one muted, the other not), and two cellos (one muted). 3. The above instruments do not begin section 1b until the percussive “clang” (1a) has sounded for at least § seconds, and then not all at once! 4. 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