Bruce Adolphe SELF COMES TO MIND. Perusal. Based on a text by Antonio Damasio. Commissioned with support from Joan and Allan Fisch

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1 Bruce Adolphe SELF COMES TO MIND Based on a text by Antonio Damasio Commissioned with support rom Joan and Allan Fisch World Premiere Perormance at Lerak Theater American Museum o Natural History May, 2009 Yo-Yo Ma, cello Ayano Kataoka, Percussion John Ferrari, Percussion Please note that the purchase or rental o this music in no way conveys the right o public perormance. In order to secure the right o public perormance, a license must be obtained rom: BMI 20 West 57 th Street, New York, NY tel: Copyright 2008 by PollyRhythm Productions, New York, NY All Rights Reserved. Printed in USA.

2 SELF COMES TO MIND Duration: Approximately 21 minutes I. When Mind First in the Body Bloomed 1 II. Sel Came to Mind 20 III. Discovery 9 Instrumentation: Solo Cello Percussion I: chimes, gong, vibraphone, marimba Percussion II: chromatic crotales, suspended cymbal, our tom-toms, marimba Text by Antonio Damasio available upon request Interactive visual images o brain scans available upon request

3 SELF COMES TO MIND Notes on the collaboration with neuroscientist Antonio Damasio Sel Comes to Mind is the third work I have coosed based on Antonio Damasio's writing. The irst two Body Loops or piano and chamber orchestra and Memories o a Possible Future or piano and string quartet were inspired by ideas in his book Descartes' Error. Sel Comes to Mind diers in that it was a collaboration with Antonio. I had been considering some passages rom The Feeling o What Happens: Body and Emotion in the Making o Consciousness, but could not resist asking Antonio i he would write something speciically or me. He agreed, and asked me about the musical instruments that would play the work, how it would represent mind or consciousness, and suggested that we get a great musician who could be the protagonist o the work. We agreed that Yo-Yo Ma would be a great choice or this role. Yo-Yo and I discussed the project, and he suggested that I use percussion, and he also encouraged Antonio and me to explore a visualization o the music and text. Antonio s wie and colleague Hanna Damasio is renowned or her brain scan images, and her book o scans is regarded as an international standard by neuroscientists. It was a no brainer (sorry) to use her images. Antonio sent me several versions o his text on the evolution o the mind, which eventually he titled Sel Comes to Mind. The text is prooundly poetic, as anyone who has read his books would expect it to be. While the ideas behind the text are rooted in scientiic thought, the language is sile, vivid, unorgettable. Antonio s most recent book, due out in 2010, will be called Sel Comes to Mind. In coosing the music or Sel Comes to Mind, I ollowed closely the qualities o the text, namely its narrative energy, rhythm o images, emotional texture, and the articulation o speciic biological concepts that suggested musical parallels. The cello serves as the ocus o the narrative and the percussion instruments are eloyed to aliy and modulate ideas, textures, and colors. Because I conceived the music in rich, multi-layered harmonies and contrapuntal melodic patterns, it was necessary to have two percussionists rather than one. In addition, with two percussionists, the players can surround the solo cello, giving the cello more acoustic and visual ocus as the protagonist/mind o the work. Even though I have coosed many works that seem to have a program including music "about" abstract expressionist paintings, Shakespearian characters, Gauguin's journals, and even dinosaurs I am ully aware that in music it is iossible to separate technique and expression. For me, it is never a matter o musical illustration but rather inding technical and expressive parallels to extra-musical ideas. Science is particularly inspiring and provocative or coosition because it uses terms and images that embrace musical action. But more speciically, neuroscience or me has opened up a world o musical ideas because I have come to suspect that music itsel is an expression o our physical minds, or the way our minds work. It has long been accepted that much musical rhythm stems obviously rom our pulse, our circulatory system and also rom our breathing patterns. It seems likely that some aspects o music relect how our memories work, how we retrieve, organize, reconstitute, and recognize what we know rom the past or imagine or the uture. Antonio Damasio's words are a wonderul combination o poetic elegance and scientiic brilliance. His science writing gives me, as a cooser, images that provoke structural consequences in the music, and his poetic nature allows or the ambiguity necessary to abstraction and musical expression. BRUCE ADOLPHE, 2009

4 B ruce Adolphe (b. 1955) is a renowned cooser whose music is perormed throughout the world, as well as the author several books on music, an innovative educator, and a versatile perormer. His multiaceted career in music is obvious rom the positions he holds concurrently: Resident Lecturer and Director o Family Concerts or the Chamber Music Society o Lincoln Center, ounding creative director o PollyRhythm Productions, and comic keyboard quiz master o NPR s weekly radio program Piano Puzzlers. As a cooser, Adolphe has been written works or many o the world s most renowned artists, including Itzhak Perlman, Sylvia McNair, the Beaux Arts Trio, the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, the National Syhony, the Caramoor Festival, St. Luke s Orchestra, the New York Chamber Syhony, the Metropolitan Opera Guild, the Brentano String Quartet, the Miami Quartet, The Chamber Music Society o Lincoln Center, Chicago Chamber Musicians, the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, and many others. His many coositions include our operas and several theater pieces, all o which have been produced throughout the United States. He has been cooser in residence at many estivals and institutions, including the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, Chamber Music Northwest, Music rom Angel Fire, Bravo! Colorado, the Grand Canyon Festival, the Moab Festival, the Virginia Arts Festival, the Folger Shakespeare Theater in Washington, D.C., the Perlman Music Program, the Bridgehaton Chamber Music Festival, Chamber Music Virginia, the O.K. Mozart Festival and SummerFest La Jolla. Adolphe served as the Distinguished Cooser in Residence at the Mannes College o Music or the term. Formerly on the aculties o the Juilliard School and New York University and a Visiting Lecturer at Yale, Adolphe has been the lecturer o the Chamber Music Society o Lincoln Center since 1992, and has been eatured in nationally broadcast Live rom Lincoln Center television programs. In addition to his lecture series, Inside Chamber Music, now in its 15th season at Lincoln Center, Adolphe was a eatured lecturer rom 2001 to 2005 at the Metropolitan Museum o Art in New York, where his series was called A Cooser s View. A much sought ater speaker and concert host, Adolphe has appeared at most o the major concert series in the United States, as well as at education conerences, estivals, and coetitions. Adolphe s coositions or young people include Marita and Her Heart s Desire, recorded on Telarc with Itzhak Perlman and the Chamber Music Society o Lincoln Center; Little Red Riding Hood and Goldilocks, recorded with Dr. Ruth Westheimer; The Amazing Adventure o Alvin Allegretto, a comic opera written or the Metropolitan Opera Guild; Urban Scenes or Kids and String Quartet; and many others. Adolphe s works or young people have been perormed throughout the world by such orchestras and ensembles as the Los Angeles and Orpheus Chamber Orchestras, the Saint Louis, Milwaukee, Orlando, and Louisville Syhonies, and ensembles and orchestras in Europe and Australia. Commissions include What Dreams May Come?, celebrating Mr. Adolphe s 50th Birthday in 2005 or the Chamber Orchestra o Philadelphia with Ignat Solzhenitsyn, music director, and The Tiger s Ear: Listening to Abstract Paintings, or the Armstrong Chamber Concerts. Adolphe s music has been recorded on the Telarc, Naxos, CRI, Delos, Koch, Summit and PollyRhythm labels. The Milken Archive s/naxos American Classics CD o Adolphe s music inspired by Jewish subjects was one o ive recordings that won a Grammy or producer David Frost in Adolphe s ilm scores include the permanent documentary at the Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C.

5 Text by Antonio Damasio or Antonio Damasio & Yo-Yo Ma Sel Comes To Mind I. When Mind First in the Body Bloomed Bruce Adolphe Chimes Gong Vibraphone Marimba Violoncello Crotales Cymbals Tom-toms Marimba pp p Mysteriously, with wonder q = 50 Mysteriously, with wonder q = 50 with bow pp p Copyright 2008

6 pp dolce

7 p Crot. (mallet)

8 4 2 p Crot. 2 pp 5 p (mallet)

9 5 28 More lowing, e = 100 pp with pedal, ad lib More lowing, e = pp espr.

10 1 2

11 4 7 5

12 sz sz rit. rit. rit. p Teo primo p Teo primo reely Crot. (with bow) p

13 42 Rhapsodically e = 72 p Rhapsodically e =

14 pp pp hushed but intense pp

15 5 blooming, tender pp p reely pp

16 12 2 Teo primo q = 50 ppp ppp Cym. Crot. Cym. Teo primo q = 50 (with mallet) ppp

17 8 1 Crot. Crot. 70 rit.

18 14 Gong Crot. 7 Crot. Slower, dreamily 78 (vibes) 5 Slower, dreamily ppp ade by end o measure ppp pp pp

19 pp

20 1 Quickly q = Quickly q = 80

21

22

23 19 11 rit. slower, reely A Teo q = 80 p 11 rit. rit. rit. pp slower, reely A Teo q = 80 p reely 5

24 20 Cym Teo I (q = 50) p p Teo I (q = 50) p Quickly, with energy e = 158 II. Sel Came to Mind s s s

25 10 21 Cym. Tom-t. 1 1 s s s (4 tom-toms) Cym. Tom-t.

26

27 147 2 Tom-t p Tom-t.

28 24 Cym sz

29 Chim. Chim. Crot p p p p p sz 25

30 2 Crot. Chim. Crot p p

31 Chim. Tom-t. 179 p Tom-t.

32 28 Cym. Tom-t sz

33 s s p s s p

34 s s p s s p

35 202 1 Crot. Crot. Chim sz sz sz p p p

36 p

37

38 4 20 p rit. Slower A teo rit. A Teo q = 80 2 p p p Slower rit. p pizz. A teo rit. A Teo q = 80 p

39 p arco

40 sz sz p

41 25 s s s rall. s rall.

42 8 Maestoso 22 Crot. Cym. Chim. Gong Maestoso 24 (let ring, no tremolo)

43 Passionately q = 7 Passionately q = 7 p slower, espr. p A Teo A Teo 5 expansively III. Discovery 5 9

44 40 27 p 279 sz p p p p

45

46 pp A Teo A Teo p p molto espr. slower, with sorrow 5 reely, expansively 5

47 sz sz sz sz sz sz

48 p p p p

49 p

50

51 47 Chim. Gong Cym. Tom-t. 2 reely, wildly sz sz sz sz p

52 48 Chim. Gong Cym. Tom-t let ring sz sz pp p pp let ring sz let ring p molto espr. let ring slower, with sorrow 5 reely, expansively 5

53 49 pp reely q = 90 ppp p 8 q = 90 ppp 5 5

54

55

56 p Slower, expansively q = p Slower, expansively q = 5

57

58 54 4 Gong Cym. 8 iercely

59 70 p pp p p pp A Teo (q = 80) p pp p p pp As beore (q = 90) ppp p slowly slowly arco pizz. accel. pizz. arco aster aster p 55 As beore (q = 90) ppp

60

61

62 58 Cym Majestically q = 70 Majestically q = 70 rall. rall.

63 59 Cym. Gong 9 95 pp p slower, espr. pp p