Output details

"¡A Que No Me Quemas!, for bass clarinet and digital audio. Duration: 12:30.

First performance: Keele University, UK, 22/10/2008, Sarah Watts (bass clarinet). Recording: ¡A Que No Me Quemas! in eMBODYments, Music for Bass Clarinet and Electronics, Centaur, CRC 3265, 2013.

Subsequent Performances:Rarescale, St. Leonard's Church, Shorditch, London, 13/12/08, Sarah Watts (bass clarinet). The Space, Docklands, London, 10/5/09, Sarah Watts (bass clarinet). Skopje Summer Festival, Macedonia, 15/7/09, Sarah Watts (bass clarinet). International Computer Music Conference 2009, Lion d'Or, Montreal, Canada, 16/8/09, Krista Martynes (bass clarinet). Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos, Lima, Peru, 30/6/10. Playback of recording (first 8’00): Sarah Watts (bass clarinet). Keele University, UK, 18/2/11., Sarah Watts (bass clarinet). DatFest, Hanley Museum, Stoke-on-Trent, UK, 25/2/11, Sarah Watts (bass clarinet). Escuela Superior de Musica y Danza, Monterrey, Mexico, 13/4/11, Robert Hoit (bass clarinet). Visiones Sonoras Festival 2011, London Sinfonietta in Mexico concert, Morelia, Mexico, 28/10/11, Andrew Webster (bass clarinet). Festival Cervantino, London Sinfonietta in Mexico concert, Auditorio de Minas, Guanajuato, Mexico, 28/10/11, Andrew Webster (bass clarinet). State University of Campinas, Campinas, Brazil, 13/11/12, Sarah Watts (bass clarinet). UNIRIO - Federal University of Rio de Janeiro State, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 16/11/12, Sarah Watts (bass clarinet). Federal University of Pernambuco, Recife, Brazil, 19/11/12, Sarah Watts (bass clarinet).

Sarah Watts. Broadcast by National Autonomous University of Mexico radio, Radio UNAM, 5/3/13, Sarah Watts (bass clarinet). Centro de las Artes, Monterrey, Mexico, 15/5/13, Robert Hoit (bass clarinet).

"

This work addresses two of my long term research concerns:

1. The integration of inter-cultural materials into coherent musical expression.

2. The establishment of aesthetic links between electronic and non-electronic sounds.

The first of these is realised through sonic materials/style and compositional technique. The main instrumental materials and style are based on El Alcatraz, an Afro-Peruvian dance in which performers hold a candle and attempt to burn a handkerchief fastened to the backside of their partners. For instance, the bass clarinet begins and ends with a ritornello adapted from the chorus of this song: ‘Bet you cannot burn my alcatraz’ (bars 1-3, 0:00-18:00; 168-78, 12:00-12:30); it also appears in various transformations throughout the work (e.g. bars 16, 0:44-0:53; 59-61, 2:42-3:17). The digital audio integrates Afro-Peruvian materials into electroacoustic discourse through reminiscent timbres and rhythms. These develop towards an overt characteristic rhythmic section amalgamated with idiomatic electroacoustic sounds and extended clarinet techniques (bars 122-65, 10:02-11:27). Finally, typical klezmer gestures are integrated into the clarinet discourse, such as krechts (moans – e.g. bars 30, 1:33.5; 115, 9:23 etc.) and ‘chirps’ (e.g. bars 55-6, 2:24-2:27) [1]. Compositional technique is concerned with the transformation and organisation of the phrases and gestures from El Alcatraz. These are not repeated literally but rather combined with other musical material and constructed into a collage, akin to the way a DJ reassembles asymmetrically tracks from a turntable. However, in contrast to the latter, these are composed into the score instead of using digital sampling techniques.

The second concern focuses on timbral affinity between live performance and electroacoustic media; discourse is articulated through a continuum ranging from spectro-morphological similarity to absolute contrast, but avoiding total identity (first order surrogacy) through sampling of the instrument in the digital audio.

[1] See ‘Notation’ - item 7, in the score