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Haunt The Machine That Kills You

for chamber ensemble

Year:  2015   ·  Duration:  9m
Instrumentation:  cello; offstage quartet of flute, E-flat clarinet, violin, accordion (right hand); offstage snare drum

Year:  2015
Duration:  9m
Instrumentation  cello; offstage quartet of ...

Elliot Vaughan
Composer

Composer:   Elliot Vaughan

Films, Audio & Samples

ELLIOT VAUGHAN: Haunt The M...

Embedded video
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Sample Score

Sample: first five pages of score

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Borrow/Hire:

To borrow items or hire parts please email SOUNZ directly at info@sounz.org.nz.

About

My friend Charlie called 'Haunt…' a piece of “audacious design”. The phrase describes the physical positioning in the space, the separation into three parallel musics and the relationships between them, and the form of the piece in time.

Visually, 'Haunt…' is a cello solo with glimpses of the other elements; only the cellist is on stage. Off stage on one side is the ‘quartet of high instruments’, and the drummer on the other. The three elements have separate musical roles, seemingly sharing no material and, though carefully placed, essentially ignoring one another.

The quartet begins on a set of chords—the quartet’s entire vocabulary, the ingredients of a repeating chorale. The cellist’s music is more textural, the right hand eliciting a gradation of grits, from humming through trilling to grinding. The snare is really a white noise generator, off or on.

The drummer plays twice. The first interruption bisects the piece. Though the others seem to ignore it, it marks the point where cellist falls into loops, and the quartet’s loops become dispassionate, mechanical. The drummer also finishes 'Haunt…'

The title suggests revenge, starkness, endless repetition, and the effect of the in- (or barely-) visible.