Realms Apart. Composition for Clarinet and String Quartet. Commissioned by ‘Earport’, Duisburg, Germany. Premiered at Stadtbibliothek, Essen, Germany, Oct 2018; then toured in Cologne and Duisburg. Published by Verlag Neue Musik.
- Submitting institution
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Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance
- Unit of assessment
- 33 - Music, Drama, Dance, Performing Arts, Film and Screen Studies
- Output identifier
- Pritchard2
- Type
- J - Composition
- Month
- October
- Year
- 2018
- URL
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- Supplementary information
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- Request cross-referral to
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- Output has been delayed by COVID-19
- No
- COVID-19 affected output statement
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- 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
- Realms Apart investigates the idea of musical separation, contrast and opposition. The title reflects this musical narrative, and accounts for the requirement that the clarinettist sit at least two metres from the quartet, unlike conventional, intimately connected chamber ensembles. This departure from convention emphasizes, aurally and visually, the radical contrast and opposition between the musical materials of clarinet and quartet throughout the piece, especially evident in the parameters of pitch tessitura and rhythmic writing.
It quickly became apparent that the decision to make separation as overt as possible, gave rise to a consequent risk of reduction, over simplification, and musical banality. Preliminary research, experimental sketching and reworking produced a solution whereby a simplicity of formal structure would be offset by a complexity of rhythm and pitch, primarily the outcome of generative systems initiated by numerical permutation, in part controlled by a computer program of my own design. In places the clarinet part was distantly influenced by the ornamental playing style of certain East European folk musics, and research also extended to extra-musical analogues embodying separation, in areas including visual art (especially in the work of Paul Klee and Ben Nicholson), and even food.
The exploration of extreme contrast led inevitably to an evolution of clearly defined structural and formal features, evidenced in the different models of contrast represented by each of four distinctly delineated sections; e.g. at the opening the clarinet inhabits its very highest register, rhythmically fast and irregular, contrasting long, sustained pitches in lower strings. In the second section, starting at bar 77, roles are reversed: clarinet slow and low, quartet high and fast. Similarly, oppositional materials characterise the subsequent two sections, beginning at bars 131 and 199. Very brief passages of unity, between the four main sections provide only momentary respite from the relentless opposition.
- Author contribution statement
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- Non-English
- No
- English abstract
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