Composer: Carl, Robert, 1954 -
Country of origin: United States
Title: Quintet for Clarinet and Strings
Other titles:
Movements: Canon/Cascade; The Call; Lotus Ascension
Year(s) composed: 2011
Publisher: American Composers Alliance
Duration (in minutes): 22
Clarinet type: B-flat
Note: See comment below
First Performance:
Cavarzere Italy, Guido Arbonelli, soloist, March 13, 2014
Source: American Composers Alliance
My Clarinet Quintet began with the idea of canons, and they are embedded
throughout the work, sometimes traditional, sometimes in a more contemporary
interpretation of the technique. The opening of the work is a large mensuration
canon, whose five parts arrive at their climatic common conclusion to release a
“cascade” that drives the music into the next movement. It is a set of variations on
an original tune, which for me is a strange intersection between Appalachian
hymnody and Buddhist chant, two sides of my personality and history. The final
movement is quite rigorous in its process and structure, but I hope suggests a vision
of serene order, a kind of unearthly beauty. It also gradually unmasks the overtone derived
harmonic “ladders” which underlie the entire work.
Like much of my music, there’s an element of spiritual journey driving the flow of
the music, but I hope such only gives the music a particular character and energy,
and does not render it merely symbolic of something “high something “higher”.
The sounds are their own justification.
—Robert Carl