2024
For Solo Double Bass
6′ 20”
Program Notes
Elegy of the Rasping Masses (2024) is a Mass by the dead. Attempting to sing with voices now divorced from their living selves, they are unable to articulate their old songs and instead produce a series of rasps and thin pitches evoking flashes of their previous hymns. Beginning with a solitary voice singing on the way to the cathedral, we follow as this voice merges with others along the way to coalesce in a cacophony of similarly muted singers. Arriving, the chorus listens quietly to a line of chant, before beginning to hum and sing on their own. Briefly they are imbued with the natural voices of their living selves, reveling in the lushness of the sound, before a low bell announces the end of the Mass, signaling the time for their departure, and the return to their graves.
This piece makes extensive use of natural harmonics. Natural harmonics are nodes on each string that follow the harmonic series, and can be played by lightly pressing each string at the appropriate place, and are characterized by a hollow flutelike timbre. For most string instruments this places them in a very high register, but due to the Double Bass’s low range its harmonics sound within the range of the human voice. This unique combination, the low range and harmonic timbre, are used in this piece to evoke the sound of ghostly voices.
Premiere Information
This piece was originally recorded by the composer, Kolten Heeren.