 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: Tony Pay ★2017
Date: 2012-08-31 21:21
I've been asked about pieces with 'devilish' connections for small chamber group including clarinet, violin, 'cello, piano, baritone to start with as participants -- but further expansion possible.
The only thing that occurs to me immediately is the Soldier's Tale. But, any other ideas?
Tony
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Author: Bradley Wong
Date: 2012-09-03 00:38
Dante Dances is an excellent piece that I commissioned from Dan Welcher.
He writes in his notes:
... it made good sense when Bradley Wong approached me for a virtuoso piece for clarinet and piano to "go to the devil" for inspiration. I had already written a clarinet concerto, a clarinet quintet, and a trio (with violin and piano)---all rather elegant pieces---so this new piece had to go in other directions. I had been reading Robert Pinsky's excellent new translation of Dante's INFERNO when the commission came about, and my first thought was "poor Brad: Abandon Hope, All Ye Who Enter Here!"
Building on that, I crafted an introduction, theme, and variations for clarinet and piano that became a suite of dances, with each dance named for a character found in Dante's journey through the underworld. Each dance uses the same twelve-tone pitch set, but I caution listeners away from note-counting. The music is tonally based, and (as one can see from reading the dance forms) not intended to be High Art. The music begins with a cadenza, marked "The Gates Of Hell", and inscribed with the familiar warning against hope---directed, of course, to the soloist. The dances then proceed in the order of Dante's journey, through the concentric circles of Hell that are divided with particular punishments for special sins. First, there is a Tango (for Charon, the ferryman across the Styx), which leads directly to a Charleston (for Cerberus, the three-headed dog outside the Third Circle of Hell), and reaches a frenzied romp in the form of a Polka (for the Furies). The midpoint of the piece is a stately Gymnopedie, the Greek ceremonial dance made famous (some say invented) by Erik Satie, named for the two ill-fated lovers Paolo and Francesca da Rimini. The last two dances revive the speed, and further inflame the spirit, as the Poet crosses ever deeper into Hell. First, there is a snappy Schottische, named for Ulysses, and then a final Tarantella for Gianni Schicci (of course!) in which the slow melody of the Gymnopedie returns as a countermelody over the rollicking 6/8 Italian dance. The demonic nature of the piece seemed to possess its composer, too: as I finished the last dance, I discovered that the piece lasted about thirteen minutes...and I was penning the last notes on the thirteenth of November. This must be a good sign, I thought..
Here is a video clip of someone doing it in devilish garb (I've never done it that way!):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rIu0g80d3w8
Dan has also done a version for clarinet and chamber ensemble, including flute, oboe, bassoon, horn, piano, percussion and strings. The piece includes a section in which the clarinetist feigns extreme nervousness over the upcoming music (wiping brow, adjusting reed, etc.). When Richard MacDowell performed this version at a ClarinetFest, he not only had the devil make an appearance onstage, he shouted out "This must be hell - look at all the clarinetists in the audience!".
Brad Wong
Western Michigan University
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Author: ned
Date: 2012-09-03 05:18
I'm not quite sure what you mean by ''devilish connections'', but this piece is devilishly difficult to play.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wh2aa8mzkkU
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Author: Lelia Loban ★2017
Date: 2012-09-03 19:02
I don't know of any pieces for that specific group, if you mean that's the *whole* group and you might add just a few more instruments to it, but if you have a small chamber orchestra at the ready, Charles Wuorinen's Dante Trilogy begins in Hell with The Mission of Virgil. Wuorinen wrote the
original (1993) for two pianos, but re-scored the piece himself for a small chamber orchestra. Though the Mission of Virgil is extremely dissonant, I think it's accessible for the audience simply because it's so entertainingly sinister. If you need something shorter, then Part VI, Satan, is about two minutes long.
Harald Saeverud's Peer Gynt Suite, Op, 28, begins with The Devil's Five-Hop, a delightful piece that's about two and a half minutes long.
Another possibility for a larger group: Ralph Vaughan Williams's Job: A Masque for Dancing. For some reason apparently he didn't like to call it a
ballet suite, but that's what it is. He offered the idea to Serge Diaghilev, who rejected it. He wrote it anyway, for a full orchestra, but at some point Constant Lambert re-scored it for a small pit orchestra and that version might work for your group. Scene two of the suite is about two minutes long: Satan's Dance of Triumph. There's a Vision of Satan later on, too.
Franz Liszt wrote so many pieces with homage to Old Scratch that you could probably put together an all-Liszt program. If he's sharing the stage with other composers, the original versions of his first and second Mephisto
Waltzes are for orchestra.
The Overture to Franz Schubert's opera, The Devil's Pleasure-Palace, might qualify. An uncle tests the fidelity of his niece's fiancé by tempting him, but subjects the young man to magic tricks, not a real Devil. The Overture is a little under ten minutes long.
Depending on how many musicians you end up with, there's always Berlioz's Symphonie Fantastique. Everything after the March to the Scaffold takes place in Hell. I think you need a big orchestra to give that Devil his due, however.
Or there's Stokowski's orchestration of Bach's Toccata and Fugue in Devil-Minor, although that's also scored for a big orchestra.
What's all this for, a black mass? An exorcism? Or - aw, darn, just a Hallowe'en concert? It's not easy to come up with a program, is it?
Interesting that so few composers wrote devilishly for small chamber groups. If you wanted demonic duos for violin and piano, there'd be all sorts of stuff, what with Paganini and some of the other virtuosi playing wink-nudge games with the "devil plays the fiddle" idea. And pianists are downright hag-ridden. Chamber groups must be a mighty pure crowd by comparison!
Lelia
http://www.scoreexchange.com/profiles/Lelia_Loban
To hear the audio, click on the "Scorch Plug-In" box above the score.
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Author: DavidBlumberg
Date: 2012-09-03 20:38
Jere Hutcheson wrote a great work for Clarinet, Violin, Piano titled
"Nocturnes of the Inferno".
I just remembered that I have the Clarinet part for it.
American Composers Alliance is what the part reads for the Publisher.
Written for Elsa if I recall.
http://www.SkypeClarinetLessons.com
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Author: Nessie1
Date: 2012-09-04 16:05
Well if the pieces don't all have to involve all of you may be the Baritone could do "Erlkoenig". Also may be someone could arrange "Danse Macabre" or "Night on Bare Montain" or something from "Faust". Come to think of it could Quartet for the End of time be said to have suitable connotations?
Just a few thoughts
Vanessa.
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Author: Katherine Spencer
Date: 2012-09-05 14:16
Many thanks everyone for your help with finding devilish music. It's for a marathon event put on by opera north on october 5 th this year and they are programming 5 hours of music with devil connections for small chamber ensembles.
I'm now awaiting the arrival of the music from
everyone's ideas to get note learning. It's looking like the prog so far is soldiers tale. Rodriguez les Niais Amoureux. Kagels Atem for clarinet and actor. Dick bartons theme arrangement and messiaen the abime DES oiseaux and danse de la fureur.
Thanks waffy
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Author: Tony Pay ★2017
Date: 2012-09-06 03:07
Just to welcome Waffy to the BBoard. (It was on her behalf that I made the original post -- thanks for coming in person, Waffy!)
Katherine is my esteemed colleague who played the bass clarinet in A solo so magnificently (on a period bass clarinet in A) in Tristan Act II last year with the OAE and Simon Rattle -- some of you may recall my talking about it. But she can turn her hand to almost anything, from classical clarinet to Birtwistle...
Tony
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Author: cigleris
Date: 2012-09-06 09:34
Welcome Waffy, long time no see. Hope married life is treating you well and see you soon.
Peter Cigleris
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Author: Lelia Loban ★2017
Date: 2012-09-06 13:07
Welcome to Katherine Spencer, and thank you for telling us the reason for this Devil's Advocate search!
With five hours to fill, another thing these musicians might investigate is the chord nicknamed the "devil's tritone" (a misnomer), a chord incorporating the interval of the augmented fourth. Because the interval is six half-steps, it's been known as "the Devil in music."
Superstitious though the notion seems now, Bach's Weimar and many other areas of Europe in the Baroque era forbade this chord by law! Naturally some more recent composers have made a great point of using the Devil's chord, mostly playfully.
If someone without a piano handy wants to hear the Devil's chord, I used it as octaves from D to D with A-flat in the middle in both hands, as the last chord ending "Widdershins," available for listening or printing (free) from the link below my name -- but obviously that solo piano piece (written by an amateur, no less) is not suitable for your chamber group. I think if you Google "Devil's tritone" you can probably find quite a few professionally-written pieces that use it.
Lelia
http://www.scoreexchange.com/profiles/Lelia_Loban
To hear the audio, click on the "Scorch Plug-In" box above the score.
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Author: Ken Shaw ★2017
Date: 2012-09-06 15:35
The opening of the third movement of the Bartok Contrasts calls for the violinist to pick up a second violin tuned in tritones. It's part of the Bartok noise," i.e., the characteristic sound of his music.
I don't think I've seen the tritone referred to as the "devil's interval" or the "devil's tritone." The original statement was "mi contra fa est diabolus in musica" (the devil in music).
During the canonization process of the Roman Catholic Church, the Promoter of the Faith (promotor fidei), popularly known as the Devil's advocate (advocatus diaboli), was a canon lawyer appointed by Church authorities to argue against the canonization of a candidate http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Devil%27s_advocate.
Ken Shaw
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Author: Lelia Loban ★2017
Date: 2012-09-06 15:43
Yes, but what we have here is a *different* Devil's Advocate.
Btw, I checked the playback on "Widdershins" -- dunno what's gone wrong with that fershlugginer Score Exchange website (I preferred our late-lamented Sibelius site), but it's playing back too s-l-o-w-l-y and too legato. If anybody plays the thing, please go by the "Presto" and the metronome mark, not by the website playback. Maybe I'll get around to fixing it and maybe not. Real life is somewhat nuts at the moment.
Lelia
http://www.scoreexchange.com/profiles/Lelia_Loban
To hear the audio, click on the "Scorch Plug-In" box above the score.
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Author: Katherine Spencer
Date: 2012-09-09 22:52
I'm glad the bartok contrasts has a good reason to go in the prog I was hopeful it might forfil the criteria. Thanks for your explanations.
All the best
Waffy
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Author: Liquorice
Date: 2012-10-03 18:27
Boccherini: Sinfonia Op. 12, No. 4, 'La Casa del Diavolo' for 2 oboes, 2 horns, strings and continuo (1776)
You can hear it on the recording 'La Casa del Diavolo' by Il Giardino Armonico.
Or here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QEHs26FNulY
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