Alex Temple — This Changes Everything!
PROGRAM NOTE: I was working on a cello duo, and I just couldn’t get excited about it. At the time I was listening almost exclusively to Oingo Boingo, and it suddenly occurred to me: why am I trying to write chamber music when all I want to hear is spiky, nervy New Wave? So I sat down with some synth software — and it changed everything! The result was a genre-bendy piece that takes 80s synths, industrial drums, a Wendy Carlos fugue, a post-minimalist ending, and a big yellow buzzing ugly microtonal slow section, and squeezes them all into something resembling sonata form. A year later, I created a new version of the piece, with a soprano sax replacing certain melodic lines and occasionally adding new layers to the texture. In 2014, I reworked it for John Seaton, who premiered the new version at the US Navy Band International Saxophone Symposium in Winchester, VA. — Alex Temple https://alextemplemusic.com/
Iris ter Schiphorst — Vielleicht Gestern
PROGRAM NOTE: A varied stream of thoughts for bass clarinet - "free" and "restless", "tender" and "brutal", "evil", "singing". This short solo piece, like an exclamation mark, gives the interpreter room to free him-/herself, to shake off conventions, in short, to play. The composer, a professor of media composition (University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna) and guest professor of experimental composition (Berlin University of the Arts) among others, encourages quasi-improvisation, a wild ride through emotional states and playing techniques. Caution, risk of explosion!
http://www.iris-ter-schiphorst.de/press.html
Iris ter Schiphorst — Hi Bill!
Hi Bill! is a little homage to endless hours in smoky clubs and rehearsal rooms. The rhythmic-melodic force field is enriched with screaming, singing, hissing, and flapping noises, evoking impressions of jazz. One is sometimes reminded of Eric Dolphy’s improvisations.
Jennifer Bellor — Only Breath: 1. The Breeze At Dawn
The breeze at dawn has secrets to tell you.
Don' t go back to sleep.
You must ask for what you really want.
Don' t go back to sleep.
People are going back and forth across the doorsill
where the two worlds touch.
The door is round and open.
Don’t go back to sleep. -Rumi
This piece was commissioned by Transient Canvas (Amy Advocat, clarinet & Matt Sharrock, marimba). www.transientcanvas.com
Jennifer Bellor — Only Breath: 2. All Rivers At Once
What is the body? Endurance.
What is love? Gratitude.
What is hidden in our chests? Laughter.
What else? Compassion.
-Rumi
This piece was commissioned by Transient Canvas (Amy Advocat, clarinet & Matt Sharrock, marimba). www.transientcanvas.com