Cassidy, Aaron (2003) the green is either. [Composition]
Abstract

Details:
The work comprises three trios for seven players. It was premiered by Ensemble SurPlus, conducted by James Avery, and was
broadcast by Österreichischer Rundfunk. Additionally, the work includes three extractable solo/small ensemble works, which
have collectively received four international performances:

Portfolio:
1) “the green is or”, for solo oboe: ensemble recherche (Jaime Gonzàlez), Bludenzer Tage Zeitgemäßer Musik 2002, Bludenz,
Austria, broadcast by Österreichischer Rundfunk; Christopher Redgate, The Warehouse, London; Peter Veale, Basel
Conservtory, Basel, Switzerland.
2) “the green is where”, for solo violin
3) a/grammatical study for three (quasi-)independent instruments, for oboe, violin, and percussion: Ensemble SurPlus, Stuttgart,
Germany.
4) Programmes available on request.

Context:
This work explores flexible, variable forms and expands the application of ‘decoupling’ techniques into an ensemble setting. The
seven players are divided into three overlapping but independent trios, each combining soloists and subsidiary ensemble
players. The soloists’ material is almost exclusively driven by physical, choreographic actions, whereas the subsidiary players’
material tends to fragment and distort the sounding results of those actions. Each of the three trios proceeds with independent
tempo shifts, slowly bringing the alignment between the trios in and out of phase.

The set of works under the “the green is either” banner are all experiments in the construction and de(con)struction of a
communicative, musical grammar (and the various failures implicit in such attempts), of the potentialities of dependence and
independence of soloists and ensembles, and of the exchange (and requisite ruptures of intention) of communicative texts and
utterances. The works and their titles are responses to Derrida’s ‘Signature, event, context’ (Limited, Inc.).

New performance techniques in “the green is or” are discussed in Christopher Redgate, ‘Re-inventing the oboe’, Contemporary
Music Review, vol.26, no.2, April 2007, pp.179–88; ISSN 0749-4467.

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