Neologistics→ Music → Selah → Summer 1966 → Nonet |
Page 45 from Nonet. The instrumentation in score
order is soprano saxophone (that line is cut off the scan, but
it's not playing anything at this point), contrabass clarinet,
bass trombone, harp (two staves), Hammond organ (three staves),
percussion (three staves, with mallet instruments on top),
electric guitar (in bass cleff), violin, and cello. The score is
written at pitch, i.e., not transposed, even the guitar part. It
makes life a lot easier for conductors.
This piece was doomed the day I started writing it. It's
waaay too hard. Getting a Hammond organ (for free) was
a huge problem. I don't remember how I swung it, but I did have
one for the performance at my Black Bag concert on May 18, 1967.
However, my organist (long dead) was a drunkard who was
frequently found asleep in the gutter and hauled in by the
police. This was his condition the night before the Black Bag
concert. I managed to locate him by calling the police station.
When I inquired, the policeman on the phone called across the
room, ``Hey guys, did anyone pick up Carl tonight?'' Yep, he was
there. I had to get a stand-in pianist who was not much of an
organist, and who had to virtually sight read the piece at
performance. It was a joke. But I didn't want to cancel it yet
again, after all the trouble I'd had getting it scheduled.