Excerpt from Prismophony for guitar quartet by John Oliver.
All Rights Reserved. © 2002 John Oliver
Prismophony is in four parts: Blue, Green, Purple, and Yellow
The Music
“Sounding the prism” would be a literal translation of the title.
The parts are equal in difficulty for the most part as canon technique is
frequently used. Thus a balanced group sound is essential; yet the individual
voice of each player should come through. Tempi should be followed very closely:
tempi indicated are the minimum speed.
The square bracket under certain groups of notes indicate that the notes should
be held for that duration. I use this notation – which is similar to
the pedal notation for piano – to indicate sustained chords. I find this
easier to read than tied notes.
In general, my approach to sound, dynamics, and articulation is understated.
My indications are always the minimum requirements. Dynamic indications
in the score range from þþþ (barely audible) to ƒƒƒ (as loud
as possible). When you see an accent, this is not a polite accentuation, but
rather a clear and decisive marking out of the note.
Where I have indicated fingerings, strings, sul tasto, sul pont (s.p.) etc.,
these must be followed, since they define the colour of the sound. On the
other hand, there are passages where no indication of colour or dynamics exist.
Such passages should not be played flat, without contour, style or colour:
experimentation will personalize any one quartet’s interpretation. For
example, in Blue, there are no dynamic or tasto/ponticello indications
at all from bar 24 to 59, and, with the entire piece called Purple
– a strict canon – there are only general dynamic contour indications.
A great quartet will give inner life to these phrases, deciding how to vary
the colour (tasto/ponticello) and dynamics of each phrase. Thus the homophony
of Blue will come off as though all four musicians were playing as
one, and the polyphony of Purple will be clarified by highly contoured
individual voices that will emerge despite the dense canonic texture.
