Night Chill, for solo marimba and electronics (tape)

www.christienledroit.ca

Night Chill, for marimba and electronic accompaniment
Christien Ledroit: www.christienledroit.ca
Performed by Catherine Meunier: www.catherinemeunier.com

Night Chill is a work of approximately eleven minutes duration for solo marimba and electronics. The piece is in a quasi rondo form, with a repeated section beginning and ending the work, recurring a total of four times throughout the piece.  Each section between the repeated sections explores the elements, harmonies and chord progressions presented in the repeated sections, albeit in a distilled manner.  The elements are presented in their raw, original forms in the intervening sections, whereas they are placed in a more structured context within the repeated sections.  The piece was composed in the autumn of 2003, and the title refers to the general feeling of the piece and the senses that surrounded me during its composition – the rustling of leaves, bare trees and cool nights.  While no direct references are made, the piece has (to me, at least) a general sense of autumn in its textures, harmonies and rhythms.

The piece exists in two different states, metered and unmetered. The metered sections (in 11/16) are possible to play in exact synchronisation with the electronics, however this is not necessary. The performer should be able to hear the harmonic movement in the accompanying audio, and pace themself accordingly. Throughout the unmetered sections several cues are given in the score, as well as times, to keep the performer in sync with the electronics, though often synchronisation is vague, rather than exact. The performer should (and may need to) take many performing liberties throughout the unmetered sections. This might include repeating or omitting notes and/or figures/phrases to stay in sync with the electronics. The marimbist should also feel free to improvise on any given materials within the given time. For example, in measure 107 several of these figures might need to be repeated to stay in sync with the electronics. The performer may simply repeat one or more figures, or may chose to create his/her own. It should be noted when improvising that harmonies are crucial to the structure of this work, and should thus be considered when creating new figures.