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Posts tagged 'bassoon'

New Works and Performances by Ann Cleare

The music of Ann Cleare speaks to the heart of the problem with "new music": what counts as "new"? Really, truly new? And why must it be that way? Cleare's compositions rethink the possibilities created by instruments: both the sounds that they produce and their configuration within performing ensembles. And even more than this re-tooling, her works also organize these sounds in ways that create spatial, narrative, and timbral tension while keeping the sound-worlds of each composition unified and organic.

For example, take luna (the eye that opens the other eye). This composition for solo saxophone reimagines the instrument as "a dragonfly with eyes so big they cover almost its entire head, giving it a helmeted appearance and a full 360-degree field of vision." Or, take her mire |...| veins for brass quintet: 

Three works by Cleare, including the world premiere of eyam iii for bass flute (with Richard Craig, flute), will be featured in a dual portrait concert on October 25th at Spectrum, shared with composer Timothy McCormack. McCormack's amplified bassoon solo BODY MATTER will be performed by bassoonist Chris Watford, and William Lang performs works for trombone by both composers, alongside trios for trombone, trumpet and clarinet. 

In addition to these performances of her chamber works, Cleare's opera, rinn, recently premiered at Salzburg's Pocket Opera Festival. rinn takes the first two pages of Episode 11 from Joyce's Ulysses, and was performed alongside four other "pocket operas" that take inspiration from Joyce. Check out a clip below:

World Premiere of Scott Wollschleger's "Density Is A Kind Of Love" in Boston

On June 1, Boston's Equilibrium Concert Series closes its season with a concert of works for bassoon, bass clarinet and marimba, including the world premiere of Scott Wollschleger's Density Is A Kind Of Love featuring bassoonist Chris Watford and the Transient Canvas duo (Amy Advocat, bass clarinet; Matt Sharrock, marimba). Density Is A Kind Of Love, which was commissioned by Watford and Transient Canvas, reveals surprising new sonic landscapes between the three instruments and transforms them in strange and uniquely expressive ways. The work explores the wide timbral landscape of the bassoon and bass clarinet by weaving together complex multiphonic textures within a haze of bowed marimba, resulting in a unique, dance-like tapestry that Wollschleger describes as "an erotic soup of structured sound". He writes:

The marimba, which in some ways has nothing in common with the two wind instruments, finds a way to both interact with them yet also break free from their dance until all three instruments find a surprising and dramatic new configuration. I think of the work as a kind of choral love song. 

The program takes place at the Davis Square Theatre in Somerville, MA and also includes the premieres of Lattices of Blooms for bass clarinet and marimba by Zach Sheets and Timothy McCormack's BODY MATTER for solo amplified bassoon. 

Later this summer, Wollschleger sees the premiere of a new concerto for piano and string orchestra, Meditation on Dust, with the String Orchestra of Brooklyn and pianist Karl Larson. The concert will take place at Roulette in Brooklyn, NY on June 25 in a program including Feldman's Rothko Chapel and Penderecki's Dimensions of Time and Silence. Check out a video of Wollschleger's White Wall, performed by the Mivos String Quartet

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