'Researching new modes of solo identity and formal expression within a large-scale concerto for clarinet and orchestra'

“研究单簧管和管弦乐队大型协奏曲中独奏身份和形式表达的新模式”

• 批准号: AH/E003478/1
• 负责人: Piers Hellawell
• 金额: $ 3.99万
• 依托单位: Queen's University Belfast
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Research Grant
• 财政年份: 2007
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2007 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=AH%2FE003478%2F1
• 关键词: Researching; new; modes; solo; identity

The compositional process of today's composer is probably more remote, more mysterious even to the serious listener than at any time in Western music, yet this process rests upon the interaction of numerous technical decisions that are in themselves quite mundane. Matters of artistic judgement as to how long an idea should last, how prominent an instrumental voice should be or what dramatic curve a work should follow are essential to the creation of large works of music, for in art, perhaps in contradistinction to science, it is not usually the questions that are new so much as the answers that we seek to them. I wish to find fresh responses to the compositional questions detailed below as part of the creation of a new large-scale work, building upon my considerable experience as an orchestral composer; this is a concerto for clarinet and orchestra for the virtuoso artist Robert Plane. The decisions a composer makes about the overall shape of a work determine how it will unfold for the listener, and so are fundamental. My research into music's formal coherence in the last ten years has resulted in a breadth of solutions - from a sequence of various small movements, scattered without obvious progression like musical 'islands', to the continuous unfolding of Cors de chasse, premiered by the Philharmonia Orchestra in 2004, which takes the form of a single long movement. This last work, completed with the help of an AHRC sabbatical award made in 2002, was the first of three for orchestra in which I have followed a continuous dramatic curve from brisk activity to stillness. In the current project for clarinet and orchestra I wish to mediate between these two models of musical story-telling / the flowing story and the fragmentary sequence / by creating a structure of contrasted 'islands' that are, unlike previous examples, joined into a single narrative by a recurring musical link. A key part of my research here is to fix the identity of this musical link by experimenting with the actual sound production of the clarinet, and then to expand such a distinctive colour (or its counterpart) into the wider orchestral group for these sections. The aim is that the actual nature of the physical instrument will give birth to the sound-character of the most frequently occurring music in the work. This replaces for me more traditional approaches to the musical refrain - for example the use of a prominent theme or rhythm. This research work is planned with the involvement of clarinettist Robert Plane from the start of the process, so that his playing will be a factor in the very creation of the material: the character of a work such as this will always be informed by its solo instrument. Recent concerti for the clarinet have often been written / as is mine / for players of transcendental skill, and they have used the agility and potential piercing utterance of the instrument to make sure it stands out from the other instruments; however, in reaction to these trends it is a major research aim of mine to establish the opposite expressive character. To achieve this - a collaborative and expressive solo part that works among rather than against its fellows - I am again to make use of the actual sound mechanism of the instrument, especially the detailed behaviour of the sound when the player articulates a note; this information is already available and I want to use it as the basis for selecting appropriate groups of instrumental partners who can blend most effectively within one sound-world. In this, as in my above research goal, the aim is to colour the wider instrumental sound with the innate characteristics of the solo instrument. Profiling of individual instrumental sounds has played a guiding role in the work of leading electroacoustic composers, but it is less common in generating purely instrumental materials; it marks for me a new chapter in the overall composition process toward a large-scale work.

当今作曲家的作曲过程可能比西方音乐中的任何时候都更加遥远、更加神秘，甚至对于严肃的听众来说也是如此，然而这个过程依赖于众多本身相当平凡的技术决策的相互作用。艺术判断的问题，比如一个想法应该持续多久，器乐声音应该有多突出，或者作品应该遵循什么样的戏剧性曲线，对于创作大型音乐作品至关重要，因为在艺术中，也许与科学相反，新的问题通常不是我们寻求的答案，而是新的问题。我希望根据我作为管弦乐作曲家的丰富经验，找到对下面详述的作曲问题的新答案，作为创作一部新的大型作品的一部分；这是为演奏家艺术家罗伯特·普兰 (Robert Plane) 所作的单簧管与管弦乐队协奏曲。作曲家对作品整体形态所做的决定决定了作品将如何向听众展开，因此是至关重要的。过去十年来，我对音乐形式连贯性的研究产生了广泛的解决方案——从一系列不同的小乐章，像音乐“岛屿”一样分散而没有明显的进展，到2004年爱乐乐团首演的连续展开的“Cors de Chasse”，它采用单个长乐章的形式。这最后一部作品是在 2002 年 AHRC 休假奖的帮助下完成的，是管弦乐队的三部作品中的第一部，在这三部作品中，我遵循了从活跃到静止的连续戏剧性曲线。在目前的单簧管和管弦乐队项目中，我希望通过创建一个对比鲜明的“岛屿”结构，在这两种音乐故事讲述模式/流动的故事和片段序列之间进行调解，与之前的例子不同，这些“岛屿”通过反复出现的音乐链接连接成一个单一的叙述。我在这里研究的一个关键部分是通过试验单簧管的实际声音产生来确定这种音乐联系的身份，然后将这种独特的颜色（或其对应物）扩展到这些部分的更广泛的管弦乐队中。目的是物理乐器的实际性质将产生作品中最常出现的音乐的声音特征。对我来说，这取代了更传统的音乐副歌方法——例如使用突出的主题或节奏。这项研究工作从一开始就由单簧管演奏家罗伯特·普兰 (Robert Plane) 参与计划，因此他的演奏将成为材料创作的一个因素：像这样的作品的特征将始终由其独奏乐器决定。最近的单簧管协奏曲通常是为具有超凡技巧的演奏家而写的，就像我的一样，他们利用了该乐器的敏捷性和潜在的穿透力，以确保它从其他乐器中脱颖而出；然而，为了应对这些趋势，我的一个主要研究目标是建立相反的表达特征。为了实现这一目标——一个协作且富有表现力的独奏部分，与同伴合作而不是对抗——我再次利用乐器的实际声音机制，特别是当演奏者发出音符时声音的细节行为；这些信息已经可用，我想用它作为选择合适的乐器合作伙伴组的基础，这些合作伙伴可以在一个声音世界中最有效地融合。正如我上述的研究目标一样，我们的目标是用独奏乐器的固有特征来为更广泛的乐器声音着色。对单个乐器声音的分析在领先的电声作曲家的作品中发挥了指导作用，但在生成纯乐器材料方面并不常见；它对我来说标志着大型作品的整体创作过程翻开了新的篇章。