As Burtner described, the selection of instruments is deliberate to create an exchange between rhythm and harmony. By beginning with wooden sounds that are unchanging in pitch but unrelenting in rhythm, an exchange can happen through the marimba part and vibraphone, which introduce more harmonically complex material at the cost of reduced rhythmical complexity through a gradual slowing of the vibraphone and woodblock parts, and the log drums introduce two other pitches but decrease in volume.
Thus, the instrumentation is of vital importance to this piece. By altering it in any way beyond marginal alterations, the relationships the instruments share through their actual origins become lost. Alterations that could still be effective could be changes to woodblocks, which use resonant pieces of found wooden logs or similar or using larger log drums to replace the timpani entirely. Nevertheless, these alterations are minimal and while they could minimize the possible costs to rent or move the larger instruments, alterations like this present an issue with accessibility: log drums larger than normal are both more uncommon and more expensive, while timpani are readily accessible to rent, despite perhaps being larger to transport. Thus, we will not investigate any instrument alterations.
Performer Count
The performer count also is important, as with any piece described by the number of players. Though, it would be possible to assign the branches and sticks parts to multiple players when possible. Furthering this idea, Burtner also explains "I feel this music is especially impactful when experienced as a performer...I composed an accompanying score that can be performed simultaneously by any number of musicians or even by untrained audience members" (Burtner, p.292, 2016). Thus, experimenting with audience participation in this piece is possible and encouraged. In the context of the concert hall performance, this may be more challenging due to the time limitation of the performance and the resources available. Thus, this variable would be more suitable for an outdoor space, or for a secondary location where this can occur before or after the quintet.
Location/Venue
As stated previously, this piece has an opportunity to function successfully in different locations. It is suitable for a concert hall performance, with a blend of electronic and traditional percussion instruments, and is successful in bringing in natural materials to audiences. It also would be possible to perform in an outdoor space with amplification, or any number of enclosed non-traditional venues. Festivals like the Delft Fringe Festival, which offer unique locations for performances, are one example of possibly heightening the message of an ecoacoustic piece like this. Despite this, it may not be suitable due to the large setup required. A performance in a large outdoor festival could work if the entire work was performed, but a performance of only this single movement would be slightly unrealistic due to the instrumental requirements. As percussionists, being realistic and environmentally conscious of the transport requirements for these instruments means unless it is a multi-day performance event, a one-off performance of this movement may not work well. However, a movement like "Air" would be easily done in any location, as it is vocal percussion with amplification, or "Stone", which is one table of sandpaper plus a bowl of sand, again easy to transport and rebuild in locations without needing traditional instrumentation.
Additional Context
Lastly, looking at additive material alongside the musical performance is perhaps the largest area for experimentation and creativity. As with most of these pieces, performance alongside a video could be extremely effective. Due to the connection with wood and logging as Burtner made evident, adding supplemental information about deforestation is a simple addition that is connected still with the piece. For my rendition, I chose to connect "secondhand" with the Quintet, as a way to connect the political decisions made by governments in line with a piece heavily connected to natural materials. I achieved this by connecting the audio tapes in a way that caused a seamless transition between the ending F# of "secondhand" with the "A" drone of the Quintet, through a simple crossfade. Because I had already used video with "secondhand", I opted against using it twice in a row so that the focus was on the instruments and the action of the tree branches I used instead. If this piece were programmed first, or at the beginning of the second half, I would have opted to include more visual information before it. I also considered including a short discussion about what individuals are capable of doing to combat deforestation. In hindsight, including room for conversation about the topic of environmentalism in the concert was something I did not place as highly as I should have.
Matthew Burtner's Six Ecoacoustic Quintets is one demonstration of music as a pathway to appreciating or understanding environmental systems and phenomena. Utilizing natural materials as instruments and sound sources, Burtner juxtaposes them with traditional percussion instrumentation in quintet form, turning these different sound sources into focal points for audiences to engage with.
Each of these movements covers a specific material: Water (Ice), Wood (Pitch), Stone (Sand), Metal (Noise), Air (Breath), and Skin (Bones). Each one also uses a distinct notation style, though there are similarities throughout the movements. Because of this, we will study only the second movement for now though some examples from the other movements may be pertinent to show in comparison.
The work as a whole progresses from outward factors to inward factors, seen in the titles - Water and Wood eventually into Air and Skin. Burtner's ultimate goal with these pieces is to express in a musical context the human-nature relationship, where a change made by one is felt by both in many different ways. For example, removing trees from a region is one way this human-nature relationship works. However, the social impact of this is felt by both the ecosystem and humans - whether through the loss of familiar land or territory, a sudden weather impact due to the reduced soil retention accomplished by trees, or perhaps an increase in food production due to the newly acquired land. Burtner abstracts these relationships into a musical form, and transformations can be clearly heard over time within just one of these movements.
Regarding "Wood", Burtner describes the process that the instruments themselves undergo, starting with large, heavy sounds from Log Drums and Timpani, eventually decreasing in size and power through woodblock, and marimba, until there are no longer any heavy sounds but a lush landscape of harmony produced by bowed crotales, vibraphone, and marimba, with the occasional accent of tree branches (Burtner, p.287, 2016). "The harmonic beauty is exchanged for the wooden timbre and rhythmic vitality, like logging a forest in exchange for the energy to create light" (ibid). Listen here to the difference in character from the beginning to the end.
Beginning:
Ending:
The stark contrast between a driving force in the beginning and an almost still image in the ending occurs throughout a slow but consistent process of phasing and deconstruction of individual patterns until what is left is reminiscent of the original but heavily affected by this deconstruction.
To Burtner, ecoacoustics offers a methodology to transfer experiences and environments into artistic practices (ibid). Through these pieces, the musicians must work together with the natural materials, sometimes waiting for the material to give a cue so they can progress within the music, such as what occurs in the "Ice" movement of the quintets (ibid). There, water being heated causes cracking to begin, which the musicians take as a cue. Not only is the audience now interacting with natural resources as sound sources, but the musicians are dependent upon these resources to perform the actual piece. Noting these kinds of relationships through musical structure is one main attraction to ecoacoustics as an environmentally conscious performer.
Instrumentation
In this movement, the instruments appear to have a certain significance in their selection. Aside from the clear importance of tree branches and twigs, there is a split between metal instruments and wooden instruments. As seen in the first page, marimba, woodblocks, log drums, and tree branches all are wooden idiophones. The other half, vibraphone and crotales, contrast in timbre as well as origination, since these are instruments that require more refinement than their wooden counterparts. The timpani likewise may appear out of place, but in this context, they serve more as an extension of the log drums. Part of this comes from their pitch relationship to the log drums: they reinforce the tonic of "A" throughout the first section and continue to be used as accents of the log drum's pattern.
Both the woodblocks and vibraphone are instructed to perform a "gradual rit", and the marimba performs a slowing of their pattern in tempo. The log drums likewise diminish in volume.
"Six Ambient Extensions: Wood" - the additional optional performance score for audience members or additional performers
One main difference seen between composers such as Burtner and Monacchi is the ideology behind the creation of their art. For Burtner, the scientific interpretation of natural processes is the basis for creating his art. As he states, "[Burtner] aspires for this music to be descriptive of the data (as one would expect from a visualization) and also to function as engaging and expressive music/sound art on its own" (Burtner 2017, p.1). The music becomes a representation of scientific information, but not at the sacrifice of musical creativity. Thus the intent is to find a way to connect musically with environmental processes and experiences, not to directly sway the audience with positive or negative connotations of these processes. As shown before, with Monacchi's "Fragments of Extinction" (Bianchi and Manzo 2016, p. 245), he explicitly states it is a promotion for public awareness about an issue that is occurring silently but relentlessly progressing -- the Sixth Mass Extinction which has been documented and proven to be occurring (Cowie et al. 2022, p.1). It is important to be aware of the ways in which this art is created, either as musical development or as a way to communicate information. Both are inherently connected to environmental forces and patterns but vary in their intentions and resulting works.
Conclusions
The options available for experimentation with the Quintet as shown are limited. Due to the restrictions on instrumentation and form, and being the second more "traditionally" notated piece of the four discussed here, it would be disingenuous to break from what was notated entirely, and due to the limitations of my performance, not adjusting the programming to allow the piece additional context was a major source of error in this part. Nevertheless, the piece itself functions well as a marker for where contemporary music is able to head. Transforming environmental data into compositions of music that are still creatively directed is a more common theme now, with compositions more pointedly aimed at certain events, such as global warming in the form of a melodic line based on increases and decreases in temperature over time by Daniel Crawford at the University of Minnesota.
Efforts like this and others in field recording compositions or improvisational performances in the outdoors all serve a larger purpose to reinforce a connection between humans and the natural world. Music may not directly combat climate change, but it allows audiences to get involved through listening, get inspired by others' actions, or simply have an opportunity to reconnect and enjoy the natural world in a shared experience. People like Jesse Armerding find ways to connect to nature and other people through music in natural environments. This simple act is not insignificant; it can show opportunities and outlets that some may not have known about and can inspire other artists to take it another step further.
