'Joy Beast' for solo bassett clarinet and orchestra, duration c.17.5 minutes.
- Submitting institution
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Royal College of Music
- Unit of assessment
- 33 - Music, Drama, Dance, Performing Arts, Film and Screen Studies
- Output identifier
- 14
- Type
- J - Composition
- Month
- -
- Year
- 2016
- URL
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https://simonholtcomposer.com/joy-beast
- Supplementary information
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- Request cross-referral to
- -
- Output has been delayed by COVID-19
- No
- COVID-19 affected output statement
- -
- Forensic science
- No
- Criminology
- No
- Interdisciplinary
- No
- Number of additional authors
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0
- Research group(s)
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-
- Proposed double-weighted
- No
- Reserve for an output with double weighting
- No
- Additional information
- I explored the unique expressive potential of the basset clarinet in the hands of Mark Simpson, a composer himself as well as a virtuoso performer, and a large orchestra re-configured in reaction to the musical personality of the soloist, omitting violins and employing a number of ‘off stage’ winds placed within the body of the audience; I also referenced in its broader narrative a visual stimulus in the form of lithographs by the artist Cecil Collins. This multiple layering of allusion further interacted with a harmonic and dramatic structure generated by the resonance of these groupings between the soloist and the orchestra. The role of the concerto was recalibrated, it shifted towards a virtuosity of timbre, in which the unique sound of the basset clarinet as it moves throughout its register played against orchestral sonorities, instrumental groupings and harmonic structures that were built and configured in close response. This harmonic and textural material further intertwined with the Collins-inspired narrative and worked to engender an organic unity across the four contrasted movements. I also sought to use my personal and subjective response to the images to generate further musical details: For example, the broken wall that reveals a contemplative space in ‘The Secret’, is rendered as punctuated silences; a pre-echo of the break-out of the violently direct ‘Joy Beast’, when two players situated within the audience play independently of the other musicians. Feedback from the soloist shaped the progress of the work’s composition. Performed twice in June 2017 in Hull Town Hall for PRS Foundation’s New Music Biennial, as part of the Hull City of Culture 2017 by Simpson, BBC Philharmonic, conductor Martyn Brabbins; broadcast on BBC Radio 3. July 2017: performed twice again, at the Royal Festival Hall, Southbank Centre by Simpson, BBC Concert Orchestra and André de Ridder.
- Author contribution statement
- -
- Non-English
- No
- English abstract
- -
