Small Ensemble - Digital Download SKU: A0.835769 Composed by Paul Burnell. Contemporary. Score and parts. 3 pages. Paul Burnell #3074281. Published by Paul Burnell (A0.835769). A text piece for one or more speakers with optional rhythmic percussion accompaniment performed ad libitum.Where the text is presented in bold the speakers should speak loudly, giving particular emphasis to text in capital letters. Where the text is presented in non-bold smaller text styles the speakers should speak less loudly or softer. The speakers should vary the pitch of their voice throughout to give emphasis to the structure and to avoid a monotonous tonal delivery. The repeated ‘words’ instinctively suggest a repetitive rhythmic style of delivery - this is fine. The spaces in the text can be interpreted as rests. If there is more than one speaker the performers may either speak in unison throughout or stagger their entries and echo or overlap freely, but without losing the sense of the overall structure of the text. Multiple speakers may also devise co-ordination points within the piece to co-ordinate collective unisons - then drift apart and overlap again. A single speaker could also perform with an echoing sound effect that gives the impression of multiple voices. If performing with percussion, then a pulsed rhythmic style should be used. The percussion may be freely chosen - drum kit, ‘found’ instruments, body percussion, pre-recorded backing track etc. - performing in any rhythmic style, but not detracting from or obscuring the vocal delivery. Programme note: ‘Wha-Do-Ya-Mean?’ was composed in 2008. It was tested as a warm-up exercise for the CoMA London Ensemble, and then developed into a piece, first performed by Paul Burnell at Battersea Arts Centre, London in October 2008 and then included on the 2010 album ‘Sticking with Childish Things’. It has subsequently been performed by CoMA Singers. The inspiration for the piece was derived from an increasingly fractious and reductive argument between two people, where one person was overheard saying What do you mean ‘what do you mean’? This statement illustrated the pointlessness of the argument, and how comically ridiculous and meaningless it had become, and effectively ended it.
