Four mallets, freely selectable base
In Áskell Másson's "Fo(u)r Mallets", the stage floor or the conductor's podium can be played on. However, the composition is notated very precisely.
In 2015, Evelyn Glennie celebrated her fiftieth birthday, for which the Icelandic film composer Áskell Másson wrote her this gift, which consists of exactly fifty bars.
As the title Fo(u)r Mallets the work is played with four mallets. The rhythm and tempo of the performance are notated very precisely, just as the performance at the beginning and in between is described with centimeter precision: "... bring the hands halfway up to the face and strike the two mallets against each other about one centimeter behind the heads ..." From quarter triplets to 32nd figurations and 2:3 combinations, everything is demanded of the player technically.
The composer leaves the greatest freedom to the instrument. The surface on which the music is played should be freely chosen, e.g. it can be the floor of the stage or the conductor's platform. The player can stand or sit as desired. "Do not play this piece on four different surfaces and absolutely not on e.g. wooden or temple blocks ..." The four mallets should all have a different hardness, which increases from left to right.
The piece has many dynamic changes, is rhythmically quite impulsive and sounds complex due to the repeatedly interwoven single to triple suggestions: a somewhat unusual but very interesting firework! Due to the freely selectable "instrument", it will shine as a unique sound for each artist.
Áskell Másson: Fo(u)r Mallets, for 4 solo mallets, perc 42, Fr. 12.00, Editions Bim, Vuarmarens
