Greetings, and thanks for coming to check out Groundhog Night! The piece is an innovation in audience involvement, an experiment in musical energy, and an environmental statement. The performance experience demonstrates clearly and with no words that people hear the same thing and have very different reactions, a powerful lesson in itself. Participants are drawn deeply into the question of musical energy and the changes that alter its perception. Both audience and performers have a level of joyful engagement that is remarkable.

Future plans for the piece are to adapt it for three instruments of general description: one melody instrument, one singer, and one harmony instrument (guitar, piano, accordion, or synthesizer). For those versions, the subtitle (here as "Hear What the Earth Says", given its environmentally-directed text) will be adapted to the text used at a given site.

I'm providing here a little information about the piece and its performance for insight and background. Please be in touch with any questions or comments.

If you are interested in hosting a performance, please be in touch.

Kind regards,

John


Performance overview

  • The piece consists of 30-second segments which are repeated.
  • Audience rates the energy of what they have heard after each segment is played.
  • After all sections are played, ensemble plays the whole piece without a break.

Co-composers

  • Several audience members self-identify to be co-composers, and get an orientation with JHM before the performance begins.
  • Co-composers suggest ways to change how the music is played on the next repetition.
  • Performers assist co-composers to craft suggestions for their instruments, and adapt suggestions into notation.
  • This process gets repeated, and while co-composers work with the ensemble, the audience rates the energy of what they just heard (see below).

Energy

  • Using a source site for links to Google Forms, the audience rates the energy of the music they have heard.
  • The results are immediately viewable, and are reviewed before moving to the next repetition with changes suggested by co-composers.

Score

  • Click this link to view the score.
  • Instrumentation is completely adaptable to meet your needs, the primary requirement is that there be a singer in the group.
  • Potential exists to bring an ensemble for the performance, given reasonable proximity to Boston.

Video of premiere

  • Energy ratings are shown in the video.
  • To see all energy ratings, as well as comments supplied by the audience, follow the on-screen link, or this one.
  • To see the forms used for the performance, follow this link, the source of links to the Google Forms used for the ratings. (You are welcome to follow along and make your own estimations of energy, the forms linked are fresh and active.)
  • Sections of the piece are marked as chapters in the YouTube video, to access them you will need to click "see more" under the title and premiere information.

People say...


Premiered in May 2022 by Strange Moon (Strange Interlude + Kin of the Moon), violist Heather Bentley of Kin of the Moon stated:

"(Groundhog Night) was one of the most effective and memorable concerts I've been a part of! Thank you for your extraordinary piece."

Experience it in person!

  • Click here to discuss how we might bring Groundhog Night to your school or organization.
  • Due to the nature of the piece and the ideas behind it, a very engaging series of events might well surround and support the experience it offers.
  • Those events include the Just Listening experience, participation in an ongoing study of musical energy, presentation of theoretical background underlying the entire package.