Carl Quintet

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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

2 thoughts on “Carl Quintet

  1. First Performance:
    Cavarzere Italy, Guido Arbonelli, soloist, March 13, 2014
    Source: American Composers Alliance

  2. 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

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