Tilt (digital download)
TILT for solo glissando flute, by Melissa Keeling
** DIGITAL DOWNLOAD. You will receive a link to download the PDF of this piece after ordering.***
Tilt (2019) is a piece for solo glissando flute in ABA form. It centers around the gesture of B3 sliding to A3 (see the opening gesture). After the introduction, the A section features multiphonic tremolo passages. The B section highlights the melodic capabilities of the glissando flute, featuring bends in the style of a vocalist or guitarist. The return of the A section includes more singing and playing and an emphatic ending.
The title was drawn from a penalty in pinball games called “tilt.” In pinball, players sometimes nudge or shake the machine to alter the path of the ball. Doing this helps guide the ball to hit jackpots, high scores, and extend the game. If the machine is nudged too strongly, there is a tilt penalty, automatically ending play for the current ball.
Sheet music (6 pages).
Length: 6 minutes
Music video of "Tilt":
Northern Lights (digital download)
NORTHERN LIGHTS for flute or alto flute with delay - by Melissa Keeling
SHEET MUSIC - DIGITAL DOWNLOAD (PDF)
This piece is intended for alto flute with delay effect, but delay is NOT required to perform this piece. This piece can also be played on C flute.
If it is used, the delay effect is kept on for the entire piece. At the end of each phrase (indicated by breath marks), allow space for the delay effect to reverberate, but not fade out completely. The tempo markings and rhythms are only guides, and do not need to be strictly followed.
NORTHERN LIGHTS should have a sense of spaciousness and freedom.
The delay settings are:
Delay time: 3 seconds
Feedback: 12 seconds (for sound to fade out completely)
Clair de Lune (digital download)
Clair de Lune (Debussy/arr. Keeling) - for flute or electric flute (digital download)
SHEET MUSIC PDF - DIGITAL DOWNLOAD
This arrangement of Clair de Lune is preferably performed with the electric flute. If you are not performing with an electric flute, a reverberant performance space is recommended in order to imitate the delay effect. Either way, this piece is meant to be performed with rubato, spaciousness, and freedom.
If performing with electric flute, two effects pedals are required: delay and auto- harmonizer.
- DELAY: the delay effect is left on throughout, with the exception of mm. 63-65.
- Delay time (time between echoes): c. 3 sec.
- Echo level: 65%
- Feedback (echoes repeat for): c. 6 sec.
- AUTO-HARMONIZER: should be set to produce the lower third, in the key of D-flat major.
The use of these two pedals create the illusion of a pianist playing the piece, instead of a solo monophonic instrument. The delay effects allows the harmonies to sustain, while the auto-harmonizer imitates Debussy’s signature compositional style of parallel thirds.
•••••••••
This arrangement is dedicated to my mom, Dana Gensler, and my grandmother, Grand Jenny Leigh.
My mom is a pianist and my first music teacher. As a child, I remember waking up to her piano playing on the weekends; my dad recorded her playing Beethoven sonatas before I was born (I still have the cassette tape!). She taught me so much about expressiveness in music, and I am so grateful for her everlasting support of me as a musician.
My grandmother (my mom's mother) was also a pianist. Claude Debussy’s Clair de Lune was her signature piece, and she would often play it at family gatherings. This is a very special piece in my family.
To both of these incredible women musicians – thank you for passing on the gift of Music.
Kings of the Sky (digital download)
Kings of the Sky (Keeling) - for flute and effects pedals
*FREE Digital Download*
Kings of the Sky is built on a four-measure loop sequence (page 1). Over top the loop, the performer plays a two improvised solos based on the Primary Motif (page 2). The first solo is on alto flute, and the second solo is on C flute. To end the piece, turn on the delay pedal to create a “wash” of sound (the delay pedal must be placed AFTER the loop station in the signal chain), then turn off the loops while the delay is still fading. Conclude with the final two staves provided, or improvise your own ending.
Technical Requirements:
-Microphone
-Amplification system
-Effects pedals:
1. Loop station
2. Delay
Pange Lingua Gloriosi (digital download)
Pange Lingua Gloriosi (arr. Keeling) - for flute and delay, with back track (digital download)
DOWNLOAD INCLUDES SHEET MUSIC PDF AND BACK TRACK
This piece was inspired by a hymn of the same name by John Wade. The original chant and text were composed by St. Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274), one of the most influential Catholic theologians of the Middle Ages. The tune was later reset by John Francis Wade (1711-1786).
This hymn is traditionally sung in the Catholic Church on Holy Thursday of the Easter Triduum, during the procession from the church to the place where the Blessed Sacrament is kept until Good Friday. The hymn expresses the doctrine of transubstantiation, in which, according to the Roman Catholic faith, the bread and wine are changed into the Body and Blood of Christ.
Pange, lingua, gloriosi Corporis mysterium, Sanguinisque pretiosi, quem in mundi pretium fructus ventris generosi Rex effudit Gentium.
Sing, my tongue, the Savior's glory, of His flesh the mystery sing; of the Blood, all price exceeding, shed by our immortal King, destined, for the world's redemption, from a noble womb to spring.
This setting for flute alone is intended to be supremely prayerful, meditative, and soaring. A very reverberant space is best; optionally, the performer can perform this with a microphone with a heavy digital delay. Take ample time for the echoes to die away before continuing to the next phrase. During the embellished section, be sure that the original hymn melody carries; allow the other notes to become the harmonic accompaniment.
Optionally, perform with the back track.
2001: Also Sprach Zarathustra (digital download)
2001: Also Sprach Zarathustra (Strauss/arr. Keeling) - for flute with effects pedals (digital download)
For flute and back track.
Download includes sheet music and MP3 back track.
“2001: Also Sprach Zarathustra” was inspired by Strauss’s great tone poem, as well as Phish’s interpretation of the melody. Here, only the opening fanfare (“Sunrise”) is quoted.
The performer will need an array of stompboxes in order to perform this piece:
- Loop Station: this creates the rhythmic engine (the opening beatbox section), and should remain on throughout the performance.
- Distortion: the distortion pedal should stay on throughout; set it to a moderate (not overwhelming) level of distortion.
- Delay: places where the stompbox should be engaged are marked in the music with a bracket. Have the delay set to about one second, with a strong feedback level. There should be a noticeable echo after playing a passage.
- Harmonization: the interval to be used is left to the performer. Using a third, fifth, or sixth below yields positive results.
The piece is in three sections, after the opening beatbox introduction. There are three flute solos of approximately 1:30 each; they are notated here, but they may alternatively be improvised by the performer. Each solo should build in intensity from the previous solo. In between each solo is the theme from “2001.”
Diagonal slash marks in the music indicate for the performer to rest, and to let the echoes created by the delay effect pedal to be the melody for those beats.
This piece is more about creating an “effect” than playing exactly what is notated; use this printed music only as a guide to your own interpretation!
Star-Spangled Banner (FREE)
Star-Spangled Banner - arranged for electric glissando flute by Melissa Keeling
**Free digital download!**
At the 1969 Woodstock Festival, Hendrix presented a historic arrangement of the USA National Anthem, The Star-Spangled Banner for solo electric guitar. He used the whammy as a sound-painting device to represent sounds of war: bombs falling, jets and rockets flying overhead, and cries of anguish. This arrangement is inspired by this performance by Hendrix, using the Glissando Headjoint similar to the way Hendrix used the whammy bar.
This arrangement is for electric glissando flute (a C flute with a Glissando Headjoint, and effects pedals). However, it can be performed without the Glissando Headjoint or pedals, if desired.
Music video:
Moonlight Sonata (digital download)
Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata (Movement 1: Adagio sostenuto) -- arranged by Melissa Keeling
After purchase, you will receive a link to instantly download the sheet music and program notes in PDF format.
Arranger’s Notes
To perform this arrangement, I play the melody on flute while simultaneously activating chords with my feet, using a Helix (Line 6) effects pedal. This pedal has an effect called “3 Note Generator.” The pedal is programmed to generate a chord when one of the footswitches is pressed.
Ways to perform this piece:
· WITHOUT PEDALS. This piece can be played without effects pedals at all, especially if performed in a reverberant space.
· AS A DUET. Alternatively, you can play this as a duet with a guitar, piano, or another chordal instrument. The flutist would play the melody indicated, and the other instrumentalist would play the chords.
· WITH EFFECTS PEDALS, BUT NO “3 NOTE GENERATOR.” If you’d like to play this piece with effects pedals, but don’t have a pedal that can generate pitches, see the recommended effects listed below. Or, use your own effects.
Effects
Compressor (4:1 ratio, -24 dB threshold, 10 ms attack, 386 ms release, 100% mix), Octaver (+1 octave, 43% mix), Dynamics – Autoswell (-51 dB threshold, 592 ms attack, 134 ms decay), Delay – Transistor Tape (68% feedback, 45% mix), Reverb – Octo (7.2 decay, 67% mix), Reverb – Cave (8.2 decay, 33% mix).
More details about the effects are included in the program notes.
