Output details
35 - Music, Drama, Dance and Performing Arts
Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance
Moments and Days. CD recording of music for soprano and clarinets. Alison Wells (soprano); Ian Mitchell (clarinets).
These works develop the repertoire for clarinet and bass clarinet, and concern new methods of playing the instruments, and the exploration of a new medium. All the clarinet/bass works are premiere recordings, with five commissioned by the performers, who worked with the composers. The items for mezzo-soprano and bass clarinet are the first for this combination and are part of a continuing examination of the possibilities and challenges of this medium, which concerns: colour, tessitura, balance, clarity of text, blend, independence and integration. The bass clarinet works continue Mitchell’s expansion of its repertoire as a solo or chamber instrument. He has worked closely with composers involved in a wide variety of different styles, commissioning 34 works to date, 14 of which have been recorded. The work by Smith is part of a long-term project to explore the inspiration for his music, and to develop the new techniques required to perform it: in this case playing two halves of the clarinet simultaneously (a mouthpiece on each half) in a contemporary version of the Greek/Etruscan aulos. All the repertoire has been performed widely throughout the British Isles and in Holland; discussed and demonstrated at conferences, composer workshops, and with Smith, written about widely: in Grove and e.g William O. Smith – Musical Pioneer: 'A Look at One of the Century’s Most Inventive Musicians', in ed. Heaton, The Versatile Clarinet, (75-84), Routledge New York, 2006. These recordings bring music in a wide range of styles and genres to a whole new audience as part of a process of commission, performance and recording. The items offer musical contrast, provide a stimulus to other performers and to composers, challenges to listeners, and are part of a developmental research process for the artists, through the presentation of repertoire for a new combination and the use of novel performing techniques.
