Music archive entry

Pat Hanchet's piece "The Only Blonde in the World" is based on the painting by Pauline Boty (1938 - 1966) which is in the Liverpool Tate Gallery. It is intended to be within the technical grasp of an amateur ensemble and is "flexibly" scored, with the aim of using as wide a variety of clefs, keys, transpositions as possible within the group. Each player reads from the same stave, but imagines (or writes in ) a different clef and key signature.

The picture shows a glamorous young Blonde stepping out as if to perform or meet her public. Her head and upper torso exude confidence but her high-heel shod and spindly legs look wobbly and fragile.

The music starts on one instrument, soft and low, slinky and slow. As the each instrument enters, faster and higher than the previous one, and in a different key, we sense her increasing unease until the music becomes frantic. Gradually the mood changes back from neurotic to erotic as she presents herself in the appropriate manner.