Output details

Embodiments for bass clarinet and multi-channel live electronics "Embodiments, for bass clarinet and multi-channel live electronics.

Duration: 20:00.

First Performance: Keele University 22/10/2008, Sarah Watts (bass clarinet), Miroslav Spasov (electronics).

Output of Award by Canada Council for the Arts Grant for Individual Musicians (2007-08)

CD Recording: Embodyments in eMBODYments, Music for Bass Clarinet and Electronics, Centaur, CRC 3265, 2013.

Subsequent Performances: The Space, Docklands, London, 10/5/09, Sarah Watts (bass clarinet), Miroslav Spasov (electronics). Skopje Summer Festival, Macedonia, 15/7/09, Sarah Watts (bass clarinet), Miroslav Spasov (electronics). Keele University, UK, 18/2/11, Sarah Watts (bass clarinet), Miroslav Spasov (electronics). DatFest, Hanley Museum, Stoke-on-Trent, UK, 25/2/11, Sarah Watts (bass clarinet). (bass clarinet), Miroslav Spasov (electronics). State University of Campinas, Campinas, Brazil, 13/11/12, Sarah Watts (bass clarinet), Miroslav Spasov (electronics). UNIRIO - Federal University of Rio de Janeiro State, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 16/11/12, Sarah Watts (bass clarinet), Miroslav Spasov (electronics). Federal University of Pernambuco, Recife, Brazil, 19/11/12, Sarah Watts (bass clarinet), Miroslav Spasov (electronics).

Embodiments

Composition for bass clarinet and multi-channel live electronics

This work investigates the following issues in contemporary composition for acoustic instruments and electronics:

1. Interaction between a performer producing sonically rich sounds using extended bass clarinet techniques and algorithms for intelligent response by the technology; in this case an interactive software application in MAX/Jitter which was developed for this composition, consisting of synthesis, processing and multi-channel spatialisation. Examples of this type of interaction include sound spatialisation controlled by means of the intensity of the bass clarinet input and granular synthesis density controlled according to the instrument’s register, etc.

2. Exploration of timbral transformations; for instance, morphing between dissimilar sounds, such as low static bass clarinet tones and rhythmic patterns of castanets, bass clarinet multiphonics and a squeaky door, etc.

3. Exploration of the bass clarinet timbre via extended techniques and electronic enhancement.

4. Underpinning of these timbral relationships by means of multidirectional spatialisation.

As a result, Embodiments becomes a dialogue between the solo bass clarinet and its ‘reflections’ in the electroacoustic world through the establishment of correspondence between melodic-rhythmic events and sound transformations. For instance, the reflections of the performer’s sonic gestures in imaginary reverberant spaces and the performer’s response to such reflections; the creation of percussive pulsations corresponding to such gestures; the evolution of air/noise sounds into sonic textures with variable density; and granularisation based on the interaction between the performer and the computer – e.g. higher/faster/louder input results in a thicker and more dynamic sonic texture, etc.