PERFORMANCE NOTES

PREMIERE

Begun in 1986 and completed February 4, 1987, the Varied Trio was performed as a quintet with the composer and William Colvig joining the Abel-Steinberg-Winant Trio on February 28, 1987, in Hertz Hall, Berkeley, California. First performance of the trio version May 14, 1987 at Mills College

 

General notes.

Slurs without a terminal note in the piano part indicate "LV" (let vibrate or laissez vibrer); a rest after these incomplete slurs does not imply a release; simply allow the sound to die away gradually. Performance directions in [ ] brackets were given to violinist David Abel or pianist Julie Steinberg during the New Albion recording session.

 

Percussion instrumentation.

large tam tam

vibraphone

8 rice bowls tuned with water and struck with chop sticks

2 tambourines

6 baking pans of different sizes (tuning is random)

2 drums

 

Movement I (Gending).

Percussion:		= strike vibraphone and rim of tam tam simultaneously
Piano:		= pluck string
		= knock on steel frame inside of piano with yarn mallet

 

Movement 2 (Rice Bowls).

Percussion: Chinese porcelain rice bowls should be struck with chop sticks. Do not strike the bowls directly downward on the rim, but rather hit them from the inside near the top edge. Tuning should approximate as closely as possible the pitches given in the diagram below; tuning can be adjusted, if necessary, by adding water to the bowls using a dropper. The repeated lower note is smaller in size to indicate its function as a jhala (the intermittent reiteration of a single tone between the notes of the main melody taken from Indian practice); these smaller notes should be played more softly than the other pitches.

 

Rice bowl tuning.

Piano:

= knock under keyboard with yarn mallet

 

Movement 3 (Elegy).

Accidentals apply only to the pitch immediately following. Tenuto marks indicate a slight "push" or stress.

 

Movement 2 (Rondeau).

Piano ornaments should be played before the beat.

 

Recordings.

New Albion Records 015 and 036 (Abel-Steinberg-Winant Trio). Note: the Varied Trio was written for the performers featured on this recording, and the composer supervised this project.