麻豆约拍

Matthew Kaner is Radio 3鈥檚 Embedded Composer in 3, in partnership with Sound and Music. Listen to the fifth of Matthew's weekly commissions for 70 at 70, a series of musical and cultural commissions to mark 70 years of 麻豆约拍 Radio 3.

Writing for solo clarinet presents a unique set of challenges. Perhaps the biggest concern in this piece for me was how to create a texture that feels complete for a single melody instrument. Is it possible for a solo clarinet to support or possibly even accompany itself?

Thinking about this question I researched a lot of recent clarinet music and rediscovered Helen Grime鈥檚 Clarinet Concerto, with its particularly beautiful second movement. The movement opens with the instrument playing in its dark and rich lower register before building into longer lyrical, florid lines higher up.

Musicians: Mark Simpson (clarinet)
Listening to the Grime, as well as Jonathan Harvey's Cirrus Light, made me realise that perhaps the clarinet can accompany itself, if I set up an interaction of some kind between its lowest and highest registers. The idea to write for Bassett Clarinet (Mark Simpson is a specialist on the instrument), came late on in the writing process at the suggestion of a friend, but with its extended lower range, it seemed the perfect fit for the project. So the piece ended up becoming an energetic dance, in which the clarinet dances alone, in an exuberant kind of dialogue with itself, with many upward leaps, almost as if 'bouncing off' its lower notes.

The red-crowned crane is a bird native to Japan that performs an incredibly lively dance, with frequent leaping gestures, to impress potential partners and reaffirm long-term bonds. However, occasionally solitary birds are (inexplicably) found dancing in the same way, and this notion of dancing alone seemed a fitting image for the piece. The lyrical side of Mark Simpson鈥檚 wonderful playing is also featured too, in a kind of yearning soliloquy towards the middle of the piece.

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