 by Sam Stalos |
 |
for
Solo Trumpet, Chorus, Keyboard and Percussion
Premier Performance June 6, 2006, Rowan University
  |
| Dr. Robert Page, Conducting |
| Richard Rulli, Trumpet Soloist |
| Pianist: Bette Holladay |
| Chorus: Elizabeth Holrwieler, Gina Mancillas, Kenneth Leach, Ted Serota, Marian Stieber, Francine Levin, Lawrence Hoenig, Alysan Harvey, Jennifer Weir, Paul Nicosia, Kyle Allen, Doraline Davis, Allen Metzger, Renee Cantwell, James Stieber, Candace Stassman, Bernadette Dameglis, Brian Phipps, Fernando Mancillas, Steven Bradshaw, Nancy Scott Trauger |
Nobody Move has an international theme. It is based on the children's game Hide and Seek, a game played in every country in the world. The cultural variations to this game are conveyed by a narrator supported by animated graphics.
Nobody Move is musical dialogue in a theatrical construct. Performers make entrances; there are stage directions for actions by the chorus and soloists; the performers converse in musical phrases rather than sustained melodies. There is teasing, bickering and arguments between the characters. The performers are as much actors as musicians.
The composition is divided into 7 Scenes:
1. Introductions
2. Negotiations
3. Ready or Not
4. Cry Baby
5. Colder
6. Scatter
7. All In
Trumpet Score:
The role of trumpet soloist is the same as in acting: make the audience feel that the dialogue, i.e. the text and music, are reactionary and spontaneous. The performance should sound like conversation, not musical virtuosity. The trumpet soloist is engaged throughout the composition, and at the beginning of Scene 3, mimics the counting from 1 to 20, followed by the announcement "Ready or not, here I come."
Keyboard and Percussion Score:
The score calls for the use a synthesizer to emulate acoustic piano, celesta and organ. By using synthesized presets, the ranges of the instruments are extended beyond their normal limitations.
The keyboard and percussion scores in Nobody Move are not relegated to an accompaniment role. They do not serve to hold the chorus on pitch or fill-in the harmonic content of the score. They have their own characters to play in this dialogue, and they can be as argumentative as the trumpet.
The percussion parts (snare drum, marimba, chimes (tubular bells) can be played on real percussion instruments or on a second synthesizer with percussion presets. In fact, to reach the extended range indicated in the score, playing the marimba and chimes on a synthesizer is required. However, the parts can be adjusted for real percussion instruments.
Staging Considerations:
As originally conceived, the soloist and chorus do not appear on stage during the first 58 measures. From measure 1 to letter C, the piano score provides staging cues that involve other visual elements:
1. Set design changes
2. Lighting cues
3. Video effects that translate the game's rules into different languages
4. Choreography
These staging considerations are all optional to the performance
The Choral Score:
The choral score is divided into a mass choir and 4 soloists (S.A.T.B.) Rather than play individual characters, the soloists represent a particular stereotype, e.g. someone who is argumentative, someone who is coy, someone who is teasing, someone who is controlling, etc.
For the soloists, the real chance for acting comes in Scene 5, "Colder." Using only two words ("colder" and "warmer") the singer/actor must convey not only the nature of the game being played, but the accumulation of tension as the "seeker" gets closer and closer to finding their hiding place.
For the mass choir, the opportunity to act, in fact to shout, appears in several sections of the score. Scene 2, measure 126. "You just want it your way," is written for both pitched and spoken voice. In Scene 4, measure 200, 202 and 203, the choir is asked to sing "neya" in a mocking tone. And in Scene 6, "Scatter," the chorus sings descending 16th-note patterns with abrupt starts and stops to convey the sense of chaos that occurs when trying to dodge the "seeker." Once again, the elements of acting and singing are combined.
The approximate performance time for Nobody Move is 15 minutes.
For additional information about the composition, the technical requirements for incorporating the video graphics, and for assistance in presenting Nobody Move to your organization for performance consideration, use this email forme
