I have received a commission from the Stony Brook University Department of Music to compose a piece for their Contemporary Chamber Players. It will be premiered this November at Stony Brook and a performance in Manhattan.
Last Friday I posted the first movement of my reed trio and today, as promised, I am posting the second movement, Song. The second movement is ten minutes long. However, this sound file only contains the first 4:30 of the movement and presents the first A and B sections.
In 1994 I composed a work for oboe, clarinet and bassoon (known as a reed trio). The piece is in two parts. This sound file is the first part with a duration of five and one half minutes. This movement explores fragmented mercurial patterns that organically unfold from a moto perpetuo texture.
[audio:https://www.markgustavson.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/mercury1.mp3|titles=mercury, part one]
The opening couple of measures presents two pieces of material, a chromatic noodling line that is broken into fragments, actually motives that will be explored later in the piece, between the parts and multiple octaves. The contrast between the smallest interval (the half step) and the largest interval (the octave) would be puerile if it weren’t for the unpredictability of how the noodling line is broken up and when the octaves interrupt the line. This seemingly desultory relationship actually creates an energy on the verge of being almost out of control. The idea of has interested me for almost as long as I have been composing.
I used this idea again in my woodwind quintet a year later but expanded. However, it is such a simple and fun idea that it could be used with many variations with any size ensemble.
When I undertook this self-inflicted project, it occurred to me that composing a work that involved theatrical elements would be difficult or even impossible to get performed (as if composing a chamber work of this size without theatrical elements would be any easier to get performed). I forged ahead. I have called the work a monodrama for lack of a better word and it is an accurate word for what the piece is. It is a staged chamber work featuring a solo singer. The stage suggests the inside of a mid-1950’s Manhattan jazz club. There is a bar, audience, and ensemble on a stage. There is a solo bass/baritone whose part implies some acting though I give very little direction. The small chamber ensemble consists of a bass clarinet, piano, percussion and contrabass, and a small female chorus who double as the club’s audience. The text is “Lament” by Dylan Thomas. The duration is 50 minutes.
This image of Coltrane, Monk et al at a NY club shows a possible set design direction
The soloist is a dramatic role. Though I give minimal direction I do suggest the soloist use the text and the music to suggests his dramatic direction. The role can be simple and direct or more involved.
The overall shape of the work is simple. It starts out with exuberant youthful energy and over the course of the work grows somewhat somber. The work is in seven movements and two are purely instrumental (I. and V.). The seven movements are grouped in three parts representing the past, present, and future.
The opening, Prelude, is a piano solo with obbligato improvised bottle wind chimes in the percussion heard infrequently but whose effect is to create a club ambiance.
The Prelude segues into the second movement that uses the first stanza of “Lament.” All forces are used. The singer and the music are aggressive, exuberant forceful. The second movement segues into the third movement and is based on the second stanza. The music and energy are similar but more focused. The bass clarinet is left out. The fourth movement begins after a slight pause and uses the third stanza of the poem. The fifth movement which ends the second part (Present) is purely instrumental and represents a turning point in the piece and is based on a rondo. The last two movements each stand alone and have a sullen quality. The greatest amount of pulling back in energy occurs in these two movements. The last movement only involves the soloist, bass clarinet, and contrabass.
Lament represents a man’s sexuality throughout his life. In his brusque youth, there is great activity but as life progresses his desires and/or abilities lessen and sexual prowess diminishes. As a result, a transformation occurs and he settles down with a wife and family and a new outlook.
This clip is the opening of a piece I am working on for clarinet and piano. Mostly, the two parts are in separate meters, occasionally coming together. I don’t even have a title.
This is a midi realization of a fragment of a piece (2:00) I began working on in 2001 but is unfinished. Since then I have worked out this idea in different ways. The catalyst for this particular piece for violin and piano is the Wheel of Fortune. I am using a rondo of four sections representing: regno (I reign), regnavi (I have reigned), sum sine regno and regnabo (I shall reign). Most of the violin’s long sustains in the sum sine regno sections are played a quarter-tone low in relief to the piano chords to make them sound “sour”.
