for solo handbells and distant tape
or
solo vibraphone and distant tape
duration: 9 ½’

PROGRAM NOTE

La - cu - na n. pl. -nae, -nas : a blank space or missing part : an unfilled space or interval : a small opening : a gap or vacancy : a hiatus : an absent part, especially in a book or manuscript : any minute cavity, as in the substance of bone : a space visible between cells, allowing free passage of light.

Lacunae began its life as a piece for solo handbells and tape. It was written for Casey McClellan, who was actively building a repertoire (where none had existed) for solo handbells. I've re-worked the piece for solo vibraphone and tape. Though the vibraphone version loses a bit of the drama of watching one person navigate a set of handbells, I think it retains the essential arc and resonance of the piece.

In both versions, Lacunae is a set of 16 cells with proportional spaces in between each cell. The cells and the spaces both get longer as the piece progresses, and the spaces gradually fill with the haunting sound of prerecorded handbells or vibraphone, working through the same material but slowed down by a factor of four. The tape sound, which was near silence at the beginning, becomes an equal partner with the live player by the end of the work.

The live part starts simply with a simple pulse, then a polyrhythm of 5 on 4. But it becomes an increasingly tricky tangle of stacked pulses (in the 13th cell, the performer has to execute 3 on 4 on 5 on 6) before capitulating, in a way, and ending in a becalmed, resonant haze, fully integrated with the tape sounds.

Commissioned by Casey McLellan and premiered on April 30, 2012 in Chapin Hall, Williamstown, MA. Vibraphone version commissioned by Matthew Gold and premiered at Mass MOCA on June 9, 2018.

PERFORMANCES

April 30, 2012, at Chapin Hall, Williamstown, MA. Casey McLellan, handbells.
June 17, 2012, as part of the 2012 Summer Institute for Contemporary Performance Practice, New England Conservatory, Boston, MA. Casey McLellan, handbells.
January 11, 2014, as part of I/O Festival 2014 at the Williams College Museum of Art, Williamstown, MA. Casey McLellan, handbells.
June 20, 2014, as part of the Talea Ensemble’s residency at The Stone, NYC. Casey McLellan, handbells.
June 9, 2018, in the Pavilion at Mass MOCO, North Adams, MA. Matthew Gold, vibraphone.
August 25, 2018, as part of an immersive art event created by FOUR-D at The Church in Troy, NY. Matthew Gold, vibraphone.
September 10, 2018, as part of the 2018 Charlottesville Chamber Music Festival, Live Arts, Charlottesville, VA. Matthew Gold, vibraphone.
June 9, 2019, as part of the Talea Ensemble’s iNSIDE Out series at The Flea Theater, NYC. Matthew Gold, vibraphone.