ENGULFED is the product of extreme stress as well as an intense fascination with spatial issues. Rather than placing them on the stage, wind players have been positioned surrounding three sides of the audience (groups I, II, and III in the score). To ensure a balance of music reaches each audience member (no one wants to hear just clarinet 3 the entire piece), twelve feet worth of space should be roped off in front of each performer in groups I-III (about 6 seats on the I and III sides and about 3 rows from the back II side). Instruments less traditionally utilized in the wind ensemble – electric guitar and bass, drum set, and organ – now take the stage (group IV in the score). Drawing upon the idea of organ swell boxes, string players are located in the hallways left and right of the audience so that when doors are intentionally opened and closed, their volume of sound increases and decreases. It is due to the doors being closed that conductors (II and III) have to be positioned in the hallways in addition to the principal conductor (I) in the center of the music hall. One didjeridu player is to play from the catwalk above Conductor I. While the doors are opening for the strings toward the end of the piece, the Tenor Choir slowly walks from offstage to center stage. This score is set up in order of instrument placement – counterclockwise around the hall as the conductor would see it – beginning with the electric guitar on stage left.

 

 

INSTRUMENTATION

 

        3     CONDUCTORS

 

        7     FLUTE 1-7

        4     OBOE 1-4

        4     BASSOON 1-4

      10     Bb CLARINET 1-10

        2     BASS CLARINET 1-2

        2     ALTO SAXOPHONE 1-2

        2     BARITONE SAXOPHONE 1-2

 

        8     Bb TRUMPET 1-8

        7     HORN IN F 1-7

        4     TROMBONE 1-4

        2     EUPHONIUM 1-2

        3     TUBA 1-3

        4     PERCUSSION 1-4 : floor tom, suspended cymbal, wind chimes (metal and wood)

        1     ORGAN

 

      ~8     TENOR VOICE (CHOIR)

 

      12     VIOLIN I

      12     VIOLIN II

        6     VIOLA I

        6     VIOLA II

        8     CELLO

        6     DOUBLE BASS

 

        2     DRUM SET 1-2

        2     ELECTRIC GUITAR (w/ distortion) 1-2

        2     ELECTRIC BASS 1-2

 

      25     C2 PVC PIPE DIDJERIDU (to be play by brass)

 

(Didjeridu construction – 2inch [interior] PVC pipe cut to ~50inches in length = cut a little long in order to trim off little by little to tune; mouthpiece = exterior coupler from outside of 2inch pipe to outside of 1.5inch pipe; insert an interior coupler in the 1.5inch side to bring the interior down to the size for the exterior of 1inch pipe (the diameter of the mouthpiece interior is now 1&5/16inches)