Frederic Rzewski [1938 - ] - Les Mouton de Panurge [1968]
"Les moutons de Panurge is a work for any number of melody instruments and "any number of performers playing anything." The score provides a vigorous, 65-note tonal melody (each note is numbered) that everyone must try to play in unison as follows: note 1, then notes 1-2, then notes 1-2-3, and so on until the whole line, 1 - 65, has been played. After that, each player must work backwards in a similar way, playing notes 2 - 65, notes 3 - 65, 4 - 65, and so on, until everyone has again played through the whole row. At that point, the ensemble, which is best if it includes a couple dozen players, is instructed to burst into a spontaneous, anything-goes improvisation. The trick is that it is nearly impossible to maintain the unison and so the repetitions of the line get more and more out of sync as the piece goes on. Rzewski specifies: "if you get lost, stay lost," so the music deteriorates into a glorious cacophony with Rzewski's catchy, motorific tune slicing right through the middle of it, climaxing with the shift into improvisation. Les moutons is a brilliant hybrid of formal performance and improvisation, seminal among the works of its kind."
Percussion – Blackearth Percussion Group
Percussion [Almglocken] – Garry Kvistad
Percussion [Nabimba] – Richard Kvistad
Vibraphone, Glockenspiel – Christopher Braun
Xylophone – Anne Otte