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 Opus Tour  |
The musical compositions of Richard Burdick |
Opus 43, 48 & 49: |
Sculptures for solo (multi-phonic)
horn, opus 43, 48, 49 |
This set of horn solos started in my college days at California State University @ Hayward, explores some of the strange sounds one can produce on the horn, but they primarily explore the technique of singing and playing the horn simultaneously. My Sculptures are a very important part of my compositional output as they are key pieces from several different periods in my compositional life. |
Sculptures 1 - III, opus 43 Sculpture I was written in 1980 and ‘81 when I was in college at California state University at Hayward studying with Glen Glassow. It contains the greatest amount of unusual techniques including singing and playing, stopped, inhaled falsetto and talking through the horn. The main aspect of these works is the multi-phonics or singing and playing. Sculpture I contains my most favorite effect; that of singing and playing in unison and then gradually rising in pitch with my voice to the perfect pitch. The interference beats accelerate rapidly then gradually slow down to the still fifth. Sculpture I has a few fragments from Beethoven’s second symphony minuet. |
Sculpture II is more fugal in nature written in 1982 and was originally a group of ten phrases to be played in any order but has solidified into my favorite order. |
Sculpture III is the most difficult of the five having basically two different melodies which alternate as each time the multi-phonic chords increase in size by a half step, so for the most part the are parallel intervals in the melodies, cadenza in the “normal’ horn instead of octaves. The is a phrase in this work that was latter used as the theme for the horn and organ work, opus 42. |
Sculpture IV for solo (Multi-phonic) horn and two slide projectors, opus 48 After P. Oliveros Written December 1988 A terrific work, but you need to be able to do advanced multi-phonics. Sculpture IV starts with the same opening phrase as Sculpture III since I started as a rewrite of the work. This work has two sets of slides the go with it, on projected on the performer and on a screen behind the horn player with some overlap. This work is much more of a mature work than the previous in that the phrases are more melodic. It was written entirely in the practice room with horn, which is very unusual for me since I used to write mostly on public transit in my spare time.  |
Sculpture V "Dream in Light Blue"
Richard Burdick 4—2—90
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These works are registered with ASCAP Sculpture I: 490674134 |
