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

今天的作曲家的作曲过程可能比西方音乐中的任何时候都更加遥远，甚至对严肃的听众来说也更加神秘，但这个过程依赖于许多技术决定的相互作用，这些决定本身就相当平凡。艺术判断的问题，如一个想法应该持续多久，一个器乐声音应该有多突出，或者一个作品应该遵循什么戏剧性的曲线，对于大型音乐作品的创作是必不可少的，因为在艺术中，也许与科学形成对比的是，我们寻求的通常不是新问题，而是我们寻求的答案。我希望在我作为管弦乐作曲家的丰富经验的基础上，找到对以下作曲问题的新的回答，作为创作一部新的大型作品的一部分；这是一首为大师艺术家罗伯特·普兰创作的单簧管协奏曲和管弦乐协奏曲。作曲家对一部作品的整体形状所做的决定决定了它将如何为听众展开，因此也是基本的。在过去的十年里，我对音乐的形式连贯性的研究产生了一系列的解决方案-从一系列分散的小乐章，没有像音乐《岛屿》那样明显的进展，到2004年由爱乐乐团首演的持续展开的Cors de Chase，它采用了单一的长乐章的形式。最后一部作品是在AHRC 2002年颁发的休假奖的帮助下完成的，这是我为管弦乐队创作的三部作品中的第一部，我在这部作品中遵循了从轻快活动到静止的连续戏剧性曲线。在目前的单簧管和管弦乐队的项目中，我希望在这两种音乐故事讲述模式/流动的故事和零碎的序列/之间进行调解，创造出一种由不同于先前的例子的对比岛屿的结构，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试验单簧管的实际发声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)扩展到这些部分的更广泛的管弦乐队中。其目的是，物理乐器的实际性质将孕育出作品中最频繁出现的音乐的声音特征。对我来说，这取代了对音乐重复的更传统的方法--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·普兰参与计划，因此他的演奏将成为材料创作的一个因素：这样一部作品的性质总是由它的独奏乐器来决定。最近的单簧管协奏曲经常是为超凡技能的演奏者写的，他们利用乐器的敏捷和潜在的刺耳的发音来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现力特征。为了实现这一点--合作和富有表现力的独奏部分，在同伴之间合作而不是对抗--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详细行为；这些信息已经可以获得，我想将其作为选择适当的器乐伙伴组的基础，这些伙伴可以在一个声音世界中最有效地混合。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为更广泛的器乐声音增添色彩。对单个器乐声音的剖析在领先的电声作曲家的工作中起到了指导作用，但在生成纯粹的器乐材料方面却不太常见；它标志着我在迈向大规模作品的整体创作过程中翻开了新的篇章。

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.