Hodograph I
1959

Duration

4'

Publisher

Edition Peters

Instrumentation Notes

flute, piano (also celeste), percussion

Program Notes

“….The title refers to the tracing (graphing) of the movement of “particles” within “cloud chambers” as they rebound off one another and thereby influence each other’s actions…..”

HODOGRAPH I (1959) was composed in the spring of 1959 for the Darmstadt festival of that year. Luigi Nono was to give a lecture on notation and formal processes and suggested that I write this work for Severino Gazzelloni, David Tudor and Christoph Caskel, each of them an outstanding soloist.

The notation is primarily “proportional” (highly specific and controlled but with slightly flexible rhythmic articulation) but there are also three 15-second “graphically notated” sections in which my graphic line-drawings are the basis for improvisation by the performers.  [View additional graphically notated sections.] In effect, three collaborative cadenzas between my “implications” and the performer’s spontaneity.
—Earle Brown

More Information

Piano/Celeste is one player. Percussion is orch. bells (Glockenspiel) marimba, vibraphone.

Commissioned by Luigi Nono for Darmstadt Festival, Germany.

Audio Samples

Hodograph I

Selected Performances

December 15, 2012 • Bern, Switzerland

Ensemble: Ensemble Proton

January 12, 1995 • Leipzig

June 1, 1993 • Hebbel Theater, Berlin

September 1, 1959 • Darmstadt

Ensemble: David Tudor, Severino Gazzelloni, Christoph CaskelWorld Premiere

Sample Page

Hodograph I sample page

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Recordings

A life in music – CONTEMPORARY SOUND SERIES Box 2 (released 2009-09-01)

Wergo

Performed by Various

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Wergo
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The New York School 2 (released 1994)

Hat Hut Records

Performed by Eberhard Blum, Steffen Schleiermacher, Jan Williams

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Discogs
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Earle Brown Music Foundation