This piece was composed in 1982 for Jesse Read, and it is likely the first piece composed for bassoon with an effects pedal. The piece can be obtained by contacting the composer at his website. He also wrote a piece for flute and tape with the same name, but it is a different piece.
This piece calls for a bassoon with an electric bocal and a delay pedal. The original delay pedal, the Boss DM-2, is not readily available, but it has been remade as the Boss DM-2W. Any modern delay pedal should work, but the position of the knobs in the score will need to be interpreted for the settings of a different pedal. The score uses three positions for the knobs. The first turns all knobs to their full levels, the second is all knobs off, and the third is somewhere in the middle. The DM-2 had a maximum delay time of 300 milliseconds, so the full setting would be similar to a delay time of 300 milliseconds with lots of feedback and a high level for the delayed sounds. Turning all of the settings off would be the same as turning the pedal off, and the last setting would be similar to a 100-200 millisecond delay, with some feedback, and a reduced volume for the delays. These settings need to be adjustable while playing, so either a pedal with similar knobs is needed, or there needs to be a way to control the settings in some other way (such as an expression pedal). Most of the changes have a short rest with a fermata where the change can happen. In one place, switching between the delays with a sustained pitch causes the pitch to raise and lower (it was an analog delay pedal and that's how it worked when you changed delay rates). If a modern delay pedal does not work this way, then an expression pedal based harmony effect may work as a substitute.
A setup diagram for this piece is shown below.
This piece is difficult from a technical standpoint. There are frequent jumps of more than an octave to chromatic notes, and often to the top of the bassoon's range. There are also very few breaks in the rhythm, so endurance can be a challenge. The electronics are not too difficult, as there are few changes and they tend to happen during rests, although there are two times that the pedal must be adjusted while playing. Overall, this piece could be done by advanced undergraduate students.
Even though this piece uses a standard guitar pedal, the style is not influenced by popular music. It fits more in the atonal realm of music due to the dissonant intervals and use of quarter tones. This piece may be more difficult for audiences unaccustomed to this style of music.
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