Robert Carl

5 Double Basses

Composer's Note:
Night Garden is an essay in precise tuning for five contrabasses. Its technique is at once simple and yet demanding. Every instrument plays only natural harmonics on a single string, different for each (see chart below). The sound should be as pure and ethereal as possible, even when the music grows more agitated. As the title suggests, it should "glow" with a particular luminescence that is idiomatic to the instrument, with its capacity to make higher harmonics sound more strongly than in other strings.
The work begins with a series of expansive chords that explore the harmonic possibilities. It then goes through three "variants" (indicated by double barlines)---a spacious, pointillist melody that begins with unisons to which is added increasing harmonization; a more contrapuntal passage with widely arcing lines; a "harmonic mensuration canon", the most formalistic gesture of the piece; and finally a brief chorale-coda.
Because all the notes in the piece are natural harmonics, they have not been specially notated as such---to have done so would have created problems with the conflict between the use of the open diamond and the demands of "black-note" rhythmic values. Each player should memorize her/his set of harmonics, and then use them as indicated in the part.