Interplay (Hutcheson)

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Composer Name

Jere Hutcheson

General Info

Year: 1984
Duration: c. 8:15
Difficulty: (see Ratings for explanation)
Publisher: Needham
Cost: Score and Parts - $0.00   |   Score Only - $0.00

Instrumentation

Multiple Percussion: vibraphone, marimba

Alto Saxophone

Program Notes

commission: Duo Contemporain, Netherlands

---Following is a review of Interplay written by John Sampen for the Quarterly Journal of the North American Saxophone Alliance, Spring, 1987:---

Jere Hutcheson's recent composition Interplay is an elegant and well-crafted recital work that is both challenging for the performers and enjoyable for the audience. The composer, a member of the composition faculty at Michigan State University, has written this music for the Duo Contemporain, a single-reed and percussion duo comprised of musicians Henri Bok and Evert le Mair. Henri Bok might be familiar to some for his frequent tenor saxophone performances as a member of the Rijnmond Saxophone Quartet at past World Saxophone Congress conventions. Mr. Bok is also an accomplished bass clarinetist.

Interplay is scored for alto saxophone and mallet percussion (marimba and vibraphone) and requires three scores for performance. As the title suggests, the music focuses upon the interaction of material between the two players. This frequently involves a responsory, which at first glance seems tedious, but is actually important in setting the stage for the effective unison sections. The one-movement work flows throughout, but it is divided compositionally into several smaller segments that suggest, on occasion, rhapsodies, dances, melodies, and recitatives. This sectionalism is highlighted by changes of rhythmic groupings (e. g., five repeated notes per beat switching to triplets).

For Interplay, repetition is an important compositional device. Hutcheson utilizes static one-note (or chord) repetitions to develop a pulse. This also produces a current of unrest as these "pedal" repetitions add tension and energy throughout. The texture is primarily linear, and the musical language is atonal. The mallet instruments are scored often as two independent lines (e. g., one voice repeats a rhythmic pattern while the other plays melodic material) thus creating a frequent three-voice texture among the two mallet parts and the saxophone.

Performance difficulties might be encountered with the alignment of rhythmic patterns. Precise counting is a necessity, and in all, this may require experienced players. The ensemble demands are particularly difficult in sections that call for five sixteenth notes per beat in the saxophone part against the marimba's six sixteenth notes per beat.

Few special effects are utilized. The saxophonist must produce a smorzato on a pianissimo low B. Altissimo is found sparingly to A-flat 3. Otherwise, the music is conventionally noted with careful metering. A sensitive percussionist is required.

Interplay is recommended for its pretty sounds, its interesting motivic dovetailing and interweaving lines, and for its tasteful rhapsodic wanderings.

Recent Performances

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Works for Percussion by this Composer

Concerto for Solo Percussion & Wind Symphony - Multiple Percussion; Wind Ensemble
Duo Sonata - Multiple Percussion; Clarinet
Interplay (Hutcheson) - Multiple Percussion; Saxophone
Nuclear Conversion for Solo Percussion - Multiple Percussion
Three Things for Dr. Seuss - Percussion Sextet; Harp