Instructions

Sound

The Soloist is given a "focus" pitch for each of the fifteen sections of the piece. "Focus" means singing "in tune with" the given pitch but using the inflections of speech. The vocal sound is a kind of inflected chanting.

Section and focus pitch: 1-F / 2-C / 3-Db / 4-Eb / 5-Ab / 6-Gb / 7-F / 8-C / 9-Db / 10-Eb / 11-Ab / 12-Gb / 13-F / 14-E (natural) / 15-F

The Solo vocal style should be as "casual" as possible; that is, it should be as much like speech as possible but focused on a sung pitch. This style is a kind of "crooning." This means that the sounds of "extended vocal techniques" are not appropriate to the meaning of the text. Also, the Soloist uses the microphone rather than "projecting" the voice. This means that the vocal sound is rather softer than in traditional singing.

The tempo of the Solo line is roughly the tempo of the title spoken slowly and evenly at a natural rate.

WORLD WAR THREE / JUST THE HIGHLIGHTS.

(While the word "the" in the title is usually spoken as an unaccented pick-up to the next word, in the singing of the solo line that syllable is treated as a beat that is equal in stress and duration to the other seven.)

• World War III Just the Highlights
• Robert Ashley (bio)

[F]

I	am	not	at	all	sur-	prised	/
/	that	/	the	San	Fran-	cis-	co
Op-	er-	a	is	plan-	ning	/	to
do	/	/	the	Ring.	/	/	/
It's	ex-	act-	ly	/	the	kind	of
/	i-	de	a	/	/	that	/
gets	/	/	ex-	cit-	ing	/	/
at	the	first	/	meet-	ing	of	/
/	the	high	school	/	/	/	e-
vents	/	/	com-	mit-	tee.	/	/
Though	it's	hard	/	/	to	/	i-
ma	gine	that	the	high	/	fly-	ers
/	in	/	the	Bay	A-	re-	a
/	would	/	sub-	scribe	/	to	/
/	/	Rich-	ard	Wag-	ner's	/	/
i -	de-	a	that	suf-	fer-	ing	and
death	/	lead	to	hap-	pi-	ness	in
/	/	the	here-	af-	ter	/	/
which	/	sounds	/	more	like	/	/
a	fa-	na-	tic	i-	de	a	from

[C]

Some	re-	li-	gion	/	nor	am	I
/	sur-	prised	/	/	that	/	/
ma-	jor	pa-	trons	/	of	/	the
San	Fran-	cis-	co	Op-	er-	a	/
went	a-	long	with	the	deal.	/	/
They	don't	know	/	what	they're	get-	ting

in-	to,	/	/	and	/	they	/
have	no	rea-	son	/	to	care.	/
/	/	Af-	ter	/	the	frst	/
for-	ty-	fve	min-	utes	the	ve-	ry
rich	/	/	and	pow-	er-	ful	and
bus-	y	old	man	/	can	split	/
/	and	leave	the	wife	/	to	/
clean	up	/	the	so-	cial	/	/
mess.	/	/	/	(Or	/	/	the
oth-	er	way	a-	round	de-	pend-	ing
/	on	/	who's	count-	ing.)	/	/
/	I	am	sur-	prised	/	that	the
San	Fran-	cis-	co	Op-	er-	a	di-
rec-	tor-	ate	did	not	come	up	with
/	a	more	/	/	cre-	a-	tive
/	and...