• Game for Niibori orchestra (alto, prime, bass, contrabass, guitarrón, electric guitars, glockenspiel and marimba)

• Duration: 5' 22"
• Composed in 2018
• Parts: pl email <rc@robertcasteels.com>

v  Performance notes:

Stille Waters, Diepe Gronden is a Flemish proverb that means still waters have unfathomed depth. There is intelligence in quietness and reserve. The composition starts with the toss of a coin to determine which half of the orchestra will start the first game. At definite junctures according to a set of rules, a player must choose between several strands of music. The glockenspiel player is the timekeeper. In a chain of events that must -by rule- not be prepared during each rehearsal and performance, the decisions of the two conductors depend on their previous decisions and the choices of the players. The two games are the lighthearted visible part floating at the surface of our conscience. Below that surface lies our deep and quiet alter ego, sonically expressed by a low texture (electric guitars, marimba and glockenspiel) and by a high texture of scintillating harmonics. The metarule stipulates that the piece must be fun for the players and the listening audience.

v  Composition notes:

The Lucas series is a series of integers named after French mathematician Edouard Lucas (1842 – 1891). The Lucas numbers (1, 3, 4, 7, 11, 18, 29, 47, 76, 123 and 322) underpin the whole composition that is in overall duration, time signatures, numbers of sections, numbers of repeats and numbers of possible choices. An endecaphonic row of pitches evolves according to the Lindemayer Systems (some pitches remain constant, others vary). O. refers to the original row, R. refers to the retrograde of the original row, M. to the mirror of original row and Sh. means that the pitches of the original row have been shuffled.

A vertical black arrow pointing downwards indicates bars amongst which a soloist had to choose.

Games offer a tree of the following 29 possibilities: