With only two & a half weeks left to the performance, I feel like I’m in the ‘end game’ of my preparations – as I should be by now!
I’ve recently finished yet another trip through the 102-page score, checking and amending my annotations. I have to stand 2-3 feet from the score I play from – it has to go behind the vibraphone, plus I have to move around to reach the other instruments. And the tablet I’m playing from is just slightly smaller than A4. The result is, Feldman’s occasionally scrappy handwritten score is often hard for me to read, and I’ve needed to put my own notes all over it.
I’m using different coloured highlighter for each instrument (red for vibraphone, green for glockenspiel and so on). The time signature changes pretty much every bar, so I’ve reinforced that visually with a light blue shorthand. I’ve written in many of the pitches in purple (at a distance, it’s not always clear which lines the notes are written on) and I’ve gone over the many repeat marks in red. And I have to change sticks repeatedly throughout the piece depending on which instrument I’m playing at the time, so all those changes are marked in with little diagrams!
The result is colourful, clear, and easy to read - for me, at least! I’ve come up with the system over a series of refinements, changing things after each rehearsal and again during my practice. On the whole, I’ve simplified and reduced the markings as I get to know the piece better - after all, too much ‘extra’ writing on the page can be distracting. But it’s hard to know how I’ll feel after 3 hours of concentrated playing, and how much help my poor addled brain (and eyes) will need.
I’ve found the whole process of writing and rewriting my annotations to be incredibly useful. It’s pushed me to consider the fine detail of the piece and the inter-relationship between instruments in ways that I can miss when practicing at my instruments. I’ve picked up on more of the compositional detail & noticed more clearly the way the patterns of notes gradually evolve and recur, and I feel like it’s helped all the information settle into my brain just as much as my actual practice has. It’s been a really important part of learning the piece on a practical level, as well as helping to get my head inside it creatively.
And an added bonus is that it helps me to spot where Feldman made mistakes in his notation, and correct it for him. You’re welcome, Morton!
-Adam B