duration

10 minutes

commissioned by

Arnold Marinissen

dedicated to

Arnold Marinissen

premiere

Public Art Gallery
New Zealand

Arnold Marinissen

CD

›Layered Rhythms, works for solo percussion‹, on BVHaast 0503 (2004)
Arnold Marinissen, percussion

Genieting - the cycle

›Genieting II‹ is the second work in a series of solo compositions entitled ›Genieting‹ (›pleasure‹, ›enjoyment‹), the translation of the French ›jouissance‹ used by the philosopher Emmanuel Levinas. I interpreted this term not only in the sense of what it means to be a soloist but also as the kind of music the soloist plays. In ›Genieting‹ the music is brought back to its constituent elements, whence it is built up once again.

»La jouissance est un retrait en soi, une involution.
... une exaltation vibrante où le soi se lève.«

Emmanuel Levinas

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Genieting II

for extended vibraphone (2002)


score sample

audio

mp3

program note

Metrical modulation (See Elliott Carter) is a key element in Genieting II. In the first half of the piece this principle is used to raise the tempo step by step, four times in a row. Often the left and the right hand operate in different pulses, thus creating a rhythmical polyphony.
In the second half of the piece, the bars of the vibraphone are not struck but also dampened in such an intricate way that one becomes aware of the melodies of the disappearing notes. Another thing that will catch the ear is the frequent use of upward and downward scales. These scales often sound deliberately disrupted as they are rarely chromatic and because the pitches are distributed amongst the vibraphone’s bars, prepared vibraphone bars and additional instruments.
In Genieting II, the typical ›smooth and clean‹ vibraphone sound has been replaced by an intriguing mixture of colours, in which the vibraphone itself takes the central position.

(Arnold Marinissen, 2004)

scoring

Fourteen of the 37 bars of the vibraphone are to be prepared in such a way that the original timbre of the note is distorted. Suggestion: use the same preparation for the lowest and the highest F. The low E should have a woody quality. One can consider using the following materials: carpeting; thin wood such as triplex or hardboard; packaging materials such as stiff cardboard, plastic, paper; fabrics or textiles for curtains and clothing; resonating objects such as beads. It is important that the effect of the preparations does not correspond to the effect of using different mallets.
In order to draw the listener yet further away from the vibraphone’s sound, the player is required to choose 12 additional percussion instruments (at specific designated pitches) in the ›colours‹ wood, metal, glass and stone. Of the many possibilities, I consider the timbre of the cymbal the furthest removed from that of the vibraphone. One excellent extension is the Glockenspiel, whereby one extends the range of the vibraphone by five notes at the high end of the register.

press

»Willem Boogman has excelled himself in Genieting II«, Paul Jansen in Luister, 2004


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