by Tamar Barzel
Composition, possibly fragmentary, found in Music Manuscript Notebook 6 (MMN) 6.
From Marty Ehrlich: This is a short chorale of twelve half-note, three-voice chords written in cut time. The chords, in open voicings, move between a closely related consonance and dissonance.
by Tamar Barzel
Alternate title for a piece titled “Strickly Speaking” found in Music Manuscript Notebook 6 (MMN6). See also “Cosmic Country Boy.”
by Tamar Barzel
There is a one-page score in the archival collection for a piece by this title, which differs from the piece titled #Three. The score is for alto saxophone, soprano saxophone, guitar, cello, and drums. There is a full AABA melody in the alto part, transposed for alto, and a set of chord changes in the cello and guitar parts. The score includes instructions for the drums and a marking that the soprano saxophone should play ad lib under the alto.
From Marty Ehrlich: This is a complete work, a ballad, and it looks quite nice. It is for the same instrumentation as was used on the Tim Berne-Julius Hemphill collaboration, Diminutive Mysteries (Mostly Hemphill) (1993).
by Tamar Barzel
No known score or parts; present in the archive only on archival recordings. See Cuid 20696, Cuid 20745, and Cuid 20749 in Archival Audiovisual Material.
From Marty Ehrlich: At some point in the mid 1970s, Hemphill was visiting Malinké Elliott, his close theatrical collaborator from BAG. They got access to a lumber industry salvage yard, called Zinneger Brothers Salvage. Oregon is a center of the lumber industry, and the salvage yard was full of old saws and picks, some of them very large—used to cut down trees before the advent of power tools.
Hemphill and Elliott were given access to this shed and lumber yard at 6:30 PM, after the work day had ended. They had brought their friend Greg Daugherty to do the recording. Greg had a good reel-to-reel machine and numerous mics, excellent equipment for the time. They went around the warehouse, found what had resonance, and hung these pieces up on the rafters of the shed. Julius, always the DIY artist, had already made mallets out of tree sticks and rubber tires.
They started recording at midnight. They recorded close to an hour of music.
Hemphill and Elliott integrated “Bells” as atmospheric music into their multi-disciplinary work, “Ralph Ellison’s Long Tongue,” and perhaps they used it in other theatre works they developed in the late 1970’s. Hemphill improvising with the tape playing during his solo concerts, using it as his rhythm section, if you will.
by Tamar Barzel
Fragmentary composition or compositions, known only from a number of untitled parts in holograph, for E-flat, B-flat, and concert instruments, which share musical material and similar chord progressions.
From Marty Ehrlich: One of the photocopied parts includes an extensive formal plan, perhaps in Hemphill’s hand. Another has a similar formal plan written on the back, definitely not in Hemphill’s hand, but titled “form of J.H. Concerto.” A score could easily be put together using these parts and the formal plans. But what to title it?
The Julius Hemphill Papers is an archival collection at New York University. The collection contains scores, audiovisual documentation, and other material related to the life and career of composer and saxophonist Julius Hemphill. Materials are accessible by appointment. Click here to learn more.