Push the Dust was originally written as part of a big cello piece for Maya Beiser called I am writing to you from a far-off country. The text, by Belgian surrealist Henri Michaux, is written as a series of letters from a woman to an unnamed recipient.
We are more than ever surrounded by ants. They push the dust uneasily at top speed. They take no interest in us. Not one raises its head. This is the most tightly closed society that could exist, although outdoors they constantly spread out in all directions. It doesn’t matter, to realize their projects, their preoccupations… they are among themselves… everywhere. And until this moment, not one has raised its head towards us. It would rather be crushed.
The demo I made when I was composing the piece was for mallet percussion instead of cello, and I think it makes for a very cool percussion piece. I’ve posted that demo version as October 3rd in A Book of Days. It can be performed by six players on multiples of the same instrument, or as a solo piece for one player, who performs the text and one live percussion part, having pre-recorded the others. The piece can certainly be done on any mallet instrument like vibes or marimba, but you are also welcome to construct a homemade instrument, probably of pieces of metal, to record the playback tracks and perform the live line.
Here is a score of the complete piece. If you would like to perform the piece, please click the donation button below, set your own price (it was originally $25), and I will send you the individual parts you need to perform it live or record the playback tracks.
Thank you for supporting this low-key way of publishing:
DETAILS
- Instrumentation: percussion (pitched)
- Ensemble Size: solo 2-6
- Duration: <5 minutes
- Electronics: No Electronics Fixed Audio
- Video: No
- Project(s): A Book of Days
- Year: 2005