Solos are in the guitar and tenor 2. This piece heavily relies on guitar on the opening melody. The technique that Ben Monder used to bend notes is exceedingly difficult. One alternative could be playing lap steel guitar, or alternatively, not bending the notes at all of course.
5 reeds, 4 trumpets/flügelhorns, 3 trombones, 1 bass trombone, accordion (this piece can be played without accordion), guitar (consider lap steel as a great alternative), piano, bass (with bow on intro), drums
Recorded on Data Lords, "A World Lost" opens the first of the two CDs. When I came up with the opening triplet groove and the melody, I felt in those sounds, a sense of deep loss. A space and freedom of mind and imagination, something I associated with childhood, was now missing in my life – and that association then drove the piece forward for me. The loss coming out of the music was, in this case, the loss of our internal world that is more and more invaded and influenced by the inundation of information.
In writing this piece I used multi-meters throughout, with unique groupings of eighth notes. I put the guitar (Ben Monder) in a more prominent position, having Ben play the opening melody while bending notes. Rich Perry then improvises throughout the piece. Both of these players have the capability of harnessing extraordinary dark beauty. The writing brought the brass to a higher range than I normally write in, and this piece has some unique features compared to my other works.
Under “Solos” and “Instrumentation” you can see some of the options I’ve laid out for those that might hope to play this music with their own ensemble, as not everyone can do what Ben does on guitar. But what I love about writing music with improvisation, is that often we can tailor things to the strengths of our own players, and we should. That is in the spirit of the music.
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