“Train Hopping” by Stephen Spies
November 19, 2008 by admin
Filed under ScoreXchange Workshops
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Name: Stephen Spies
Age: 14 From: Berkeley, CA
ScoreXchange Workshop performance:
“Train Hopping” for 2 violins, viola, and percussion
Train Hopping
Program Notes about “Train Hopping”:
The piece I have written “Train Hopping” (about 3 min. in length) is written for two violins, viola,
glockenspiel and triangle. The piece represents the struggle of someone trying to hop on a
moving train. The piece starts rather slow as the person is waiting for the train to come. Then the
second violin starts a series of eight notes, the moving train, that continue through out most of the
piece. There are enough rests between the Glockenspiel part and the triangle part that one
percussion player could play both parts.
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Stephen Spies – Train Hopping
This piece works very well, and has some truly engaging qualities. First of all it’s pretty short, like a pop tune. That’s a good thing, because the material does its thing, but doesn’t belabor the point. This immediately suggested to me that Train Hopping wants to be part of a larger, multi-movement work, and Cynthia obviously feels the same way. So think about what kind of bigger piece this might fit into. Trains, Planes, and Automobiles? More train pieces? As a model railroader myself (HO scale), I especially like when I can get the trains going oh-so-slow. And I can spend too much time watching the cycling and phasing of two trains at just slightly different speeds. It’s how I “train” myself in counterpoint (no pun intended, really!). I just hope you haven’t actually gone train hopping. I always wanted to when I was a kid, but never had the courage. Probably just as well.
I am so pleased about the use of glockenspiel and triangle. First of all, the glock has always been one of my favorite percussion instruments to play. When you practice it alone, you get all these difference tones manufactured by your inner ear, and I find that to be really cool. But then, I am easily entertained. But quite seriously, the glock has been used prominently in some of my favorite pieces, such as Morton Feldman’s Why Patterns?, a 30 minute piece for flute, piano, and glockenspiel. And Frederic Rzewski writes extensive passages for glock in his piece Mary’s Dream. I think it’s wonderful to hear the instrument treated as an equal voice, not just an occasional coloristic device. The triangle, too. It can be quite expressive, in fact I have a trio for amplified triangles, one of my earliest works. Evan Ziporyn once played me a piece of his for gamelan and triangle, and made sure I understood that “the triangle is very important”. So even though Loren might have thought the piece didn’t “feature” percussion very much, I still think the choice of instruments alone was a way of emphasizing percussion in a refreshing way, and worked very nicely in this context.
One specific thing about writing and notating for triangle. You can get very precise rhythmic articulation by alternating the open ringing sound and muting it with one hand, back and forth, in various patterns. This is a typical Brazilian thing. I have also found it effective to have exact note values, so for instance, in a passage of eighth notes, in which there are some rests, having the rests be stone-cold silent, meaning the player has to mute the triangle on those rests. So I say “exact note values, mute on rests”.You would think this is pretty obvious, and the intention clear. But in my experience with some truly superb players, I always still have to show them or explain further exactly what I want. Not sure why. But just be aware that if you write that subtly and explicitly for the triangle, you might still have to explain what you want in rehearsal.
A fun piece. Add some more movements!