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Eating Variations (2006) Duration: ca. 8'30" Note on Cup Gongs and Tingshas: cup gongs and Tingshas tuned to specific Western pitches are necessary for this piece. Click here for pitch diagram. A complete, tuned set with necessary pitches is available for rental with the score and parts. Please see the Purchase/Rental page for more details. Written for the American Modern Ensemble
Eating Variations is based on a series of witty poems with the same title by Ron Singer. The work as a whole is essentially a satire on food faddism and depicts different aspects of eating. The way I chose to set these poems is light-hearted, perhaps lighter in spirit than Singer originally intended, but with a serious, dark side. The first movement, My Body, a Temple, incorporates the sounds of Tibetan Singing Bowls (also called Temple Bowls or Cup Gongs) and is loosely, harmonically inspired by Khöömei, or Tuvan Throat Singing and David Hykes’s Harmonic Choir recordings; both of whom use a style in which the singer produces overtones on top of the fundamental notes. Perhaps mercifully, I do not require the baritone to use this technique, but instead, use the flute to produce false overtones in a couple of spots. In the second movement, The Hog, the instruments mimic pig sounds with scratchy, grunting noises from the violin and cello and clarinet multiphonics. A round-sounding whole-tone scale is used and there is a Polka-like accompaniment in the percussion. The third movement, Even the Dyspeptic Must Eat, uses upward and downward runs in the bass clarinet to impart a roller coaster-like sense of Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease, a condition in which there is recurrent return of stomach contents back up the esophagus. This is reinforced with a slow, background groove in the drums. The cello part in the fourth movement, The Dietary Moralist, is inspired by Dave Eggar, a cellist who can play his instrument like a guitar and sing at the same time. In this movement, I ask the cellist to play in a somewhat folksy style and sing out of tune back-up vocals—to me, reminiscent of a 1960s musical Hippie Sit-in. The main vocalist is backed by the well meaning but out of tune "band." To paraphrase an intersting email exchange with Singer, we agreed that in this context, the vocalist might represent a contemporary version of a certain species of 60's hippie—say, a particularly zealous fair trade coffee purveyor, and that this Malvolio type is singing along with a group of kindred spirits. This movement is not a literal portrayal of the text, which is quite serious in tone, and stretches the meaning more than the other movements. Perhaps my interpretation may instead be viewed more as commentary on the text. In each passing decade, people are sure of their eating habits, and the carefree, assured, commercial America of the 1950s was no different. In the last movement, The Happy Medium, I envision a father-like doctor figure squarely explaining to a patient how to eat. The perky background music is meant to evoke a 1950s TV commercial, or perhaps a short, black and white educational grade school film. – Robert Paterson
Review of the world premiere by the American Modern Ensemble: "For Robert Paterson's Eating Variations, Ron Singer's five texts cover such meritorious subjects as potential cannibalism at McDonald's ("The Hog"), regurgitation ("Even the Dyspeptic Must Eat"), and the conundrums of why we bother to eat in the first place ("The Dietary Moralist"). Baritone Robert Gardner, crooning like a deadpan philosopher, made the most of Paterson's clever settings."
"Our audience was enthralled from the first moment, interrupted us with their joyous laughter throughout, and wouldn't stop clapping when it was over. Robert Paterson's Eating Variations has been a pleasure to prepare and a thrill to perform."
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