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International Clarinet Mixed Consort Project

Resources for ICA 2015 Madrid Conference

Mondrian Studies: Duos for Clarinets

Mondrian Studies is a series of duos for "clarinet consort" of 4 different instruments: Clarinet in E♭, Clarinet in B♭, Bass Clarinet in B♭ and Contra-alto Clarinet in E♭. This work was premiered in Madrid in July 2015. Pending a recording of this work here is a MIDI rendering of the first 4 Studies.

Download full PDF score at sounding pitch of the original version for 4 clarinettists (E♭, B♭, Bass Clarinet, Contra-alto Clarinet) of Mondrian StudiesPDF File

Ecstasy and Enlightenment: Duos for Voice and Clarinets

Ecstasy and Enlightenment is a setting of 7 ghazals by Jalaluddin Rumi (1207–1243), 13th-century Persian poet, jurist, theologian, and Sufi mystic for soprano and clarinet in B♭. This work also exists in a version for Soprano, Clarinet and String Quartet.

Download full score in C for Soprano Voice and Clarinet → PDF File
Play

Three Songs from the Turkish: Trios for Voice, Clarinet and Keyboard

Most religions include a tradition of mystical poetry, which cultivates ecstatic states emanating from a sense of the presence of God in the human soul. The texts of these three songs belong to the Islamic branch of this universal mystical tradition. They are from the 14th-century Turkish poet Yunus Emre (a "national treasure" in Turkey) in English versions by Cypriot Süha Faiz. In our "traditional" Western scale, the seven diatonic notes are augmented by five chromatic (literal meaning "colored") ones. But in these songs, the seven-tone scale is augmented by twelve chromatic ones, making a scale of nineteen tones to the octave altogether: an expanded resource for the addition of expressive nuances of color to the harmonies and melodic lines (especially those performed by the most expressive medium of all, the human voice). The creation and realisation of the work has been funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Board of the UK.

Download full score in C with performance notes → PDF File
Play version with acoustic clarinet
Play version with wind controller

Performers

Graham Hair

Graham Hair spent the first half of his working life as Head of Composition at the Conservatorium in Sydney (Australia), and the second half as Professor of Music at Glasgow University (Scotland). Now retired from undergraduate teaching, he still collaborates with the Science and Music Research Group of Glasgow's Engineering School on projects in music perception and building new instruments (amongst other topics), and is Visiting Professor in the Department of Contemporary Arts (MMU Manchester, UK). Since 1991 he has directed "Scottish Voices", a chamber music group based on solo women's voices with various collaborating instrumentalists, which (amongst other things) has recorded for Parma/Ravello in the United States, and for which he has written more than a dozen works.

Ingrid Pearson

Ingrid Pearson has performed with major UK period ensembles including Florilegium, Gabrieli Consort and Players, The Hanover Band, Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment and Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique. She has appeared in venues including London's Queen Elizabeth, Barbican and Wigmore halls, the Salzburg Mozarteum and the Lincoln Center, New York. Ingrid's collection of instruments include Classical clarinets after Tauber (from Daniel Bangham's Cambridge workshop), as well as a soprano chalumeau after Denner and a Classical basset horn after Griesbacher (both by Andreas Schöni of Bern). Ingrid also continues to perform on modern clarinet. Recent projects include new compositions in 19-tone equally-tempered microtonality, concerts with the Edinburgh Quartet and a performance at the International Clarinet Association's recent symposium in Madrid.

Her interest in clarinet history, repertoire and development brought Ingrid to the UK from Australia. Since completing doctoral study she has been active as an academic, joining the professoriat at London's Royal College of Music in 2005. Ingrid is currently RCM Research Fellow in Performance Practice, which allows her a broad remit of activities across theory and practice. Her research has been supported by the Arts and Humanities Research Council and the Galpin Society, and her publications have appeared in English, Chinese and German.

Alex South

Alex South studied at Cambridge University before joining the postgraduate performance course at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama, where he was taught by John Cushing and Michael Huntriss. Since graduating from the RSAMD Alex has focused on contemporary chamber music: he is a founder member of the Scottish Clarinet Quartet, plays and records with the avant-garde folk group The One Ensemble, selected to form part of the Scottish Government's Made in Scotland 2013 Showcase, and performs regularly with pianist Oliver Rundell. Other recent projects include the Scottish première of Mauricio Kagel's Eine Brise for 111 cyclists, audiovisual performances of Cornelius Cardew's Treatise, and collaborations with composer David Fennessy, flautist Richard Craig, and the Zodiac Trio.

Alex is currently developing a new microtonal clarinet wind synthesizer at Glasgow University with composer Graham Hair and electronic engineer Nick Bailey.

Roslyn Dunlop

Clarinet, Sydney Conservatory.

Katrina Nimmo

Soprano, Royal Marines.

Sir Henri Bok

Clarinet, Rotterdam University, The Netherlands.