Rehmann-Second Person (SP)-V/P/CL

The question that Rehmann began with was quite simple, "Could I create a piece of music that is affected by the real time decisions of an audience?" As a child Rehmann was fascinated with gamebooks, or stories written from a second-person point of view. These books allowed the reader to periodically make choices that determined the outcome of the story. This work is an attempt to create that participatory experience for a concert audience. Before I even began sketching the piece, I spent weeks developing ideas for the alternate notations that would be needed in order to facilitate a seamless performance. This work, Second Person, is the result of that process – a work that requires an audience, in real time, to vote on how they'd like the piece to unfold.

During Second Person, the audience is faced with four decisions that directly impact the structure of the work. The four decisions are presented to them throughout the duration of the performance. Their collective decision as an audience, much like the gamebooks of my youth, will determine what course the performers take next. An interesting byproduct of the decisions that they make, is that they will not hear parts of Second Person that the performers have prepared to play. In total, there are actually 16 different ways that this composition can unfold depending on what decisions the audience makes.
-Chad Rehmann

number of players: 2
Difficulty: Advanced

Instrumentation

Player 1: Bb clarinet
Player 2: Vibraphone, bass drum, low tom tom, 2 bongos, 3 temple bowls, 2 resonant metals, hi hat, suspended cymbal