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

今天的作曲家的创作过程可能比西方音乐的任何时候都更遥远，甚至对严肃的听众来说也更神秘，然而这个过程是建立在许多技术决定的相互作用之上的，这些决定本身就很平凡。艺术判断的问题，如一个想法应该持续多久，一个乐器的声音应该有多突出，或者一部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是至关重要的，因为在艺术中，也许与科学相反，通常不是问题是新的，而是我们寻求它们的答案。我希望根据我作为管弦乐作曲家的丰富经验，在创作一部新的大型作品的过程中，找到对以下作曲问题的新答案；这是为艺术大师罗伯特·普莱因所作的单簧管和管弦乐协奏曲。作曲家对作品的整体形状所做的决定决定了它将如何向听众展开，因此是最基本的。在过去的十年里，我对音乐形式连贯性的研究产生了广泛的解决方案——从一系列不同的小动作，分散在一起，没有明显的进展，就像音乐“岛屿”一样，到2004年爱乐乐团首演的连续展开的Cors de chasse，它采取了一个长乐章的形式。这最后一部作品是在2002年AHRC颁发的休假奖的帮助下完成的，是我遵循从活跃到静止的连续戏剧性曲线的三部管弦乐作品中的第一部。在目前的单簧管和管弦乐项目中，我希望通过创建一个对比的“岛屿”结构，在这两种音乐故事讲述模式/流动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到一个单一的叙事中。我在这里研究的一个关键部分是通过实验单簧管的实际声音制作来确定这种音乐联系的身份，然后将这种独特的颜色（或其对应的颜色）扩展到更广泛的管弦乐组中。其目的是物理乐器的实际性质将产生作品中最频繁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——例如使用一个突出的主题或节奏。这项研究工作从一开始就有单簧管演奏家Robert Plane的参与，所以他的演奏将是材料创作的一个因素：这样的作品的特点总是由它的独奏乐器来传达。最近的单簧管协奏曲经常是为具有卓越技能的演奏者而写的，他们利用了单簧管的敏捷性和潜在的刺耳的声音，以确保它从其他乐器中脱颖而出；然而，针对这些趋势，建立相反的表达特征是我的主要研究目标。为了实现这一目标——一种协作和富有表现力的独奏部分，它在同伴之间而不是在同伴之间相互作用——我再次利用了乐器的实际声音机制，特别是当演奏者清晰地表达一个音符时声音的详细行为；这些信息已经可用，我想把它作为选择合适的乐器合作伙伴的基础，他们可以最有效地融入一个声音世界。在这一点上，就像我上面的研究目标一样，目的是用独奏乐器的固有特征来渲染更广泛的乐器声音。单个器乐声音的分析在领先的电声作曲家的工作中发挥了指导作用，但在生成纯器乐材料时并不常见；它标志着我在整体构图过程中迈向大型作品的新篇章。

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.