SOLO - Voices (1997) - Clarinet concerto
Duration - 18 min
Bb cl solo; picc, 2 fl, 2 ob, e hn, 2 cl (Eb, Bs, A), a sax, 2 bsn, cbsn; 4 hn, 3 tpt, 3 tbn, tba; pno, hp, el gtr, el bs, timp, 4 perc; strings
“Derek Bermel’s Voices, a concerto for clarinet, with the composer playing the solo part brilliantly, was fun, music with brash humor and clever scoring ... The polished and the vernacular mingle in the bent-note evocations of speech flirting, taunting, shouting and bantering that open the concerto, as well as in the slow movement, based on an Irish folk melody, and the wild, unabashedly down-and-dirty jazz jam that ends the piece.”
“Derek Bermel’s Voices, a concerto for clarinet and orchestra, is a crowd-pleaser that is likely to enter the repertory of every orchestra that had a representative in the audience. Part of the appeal lies in the virtuosity and charisma of the composer, who was soloist. There doesn’t seem to be anything Bermel can’t do with the clarinet; but the appeal also lies in the music, which adds dimensions of wit and intelligence to melodic, harmonic, and rhythmic elements of immediate popular appeal. This is the kind of piece that makes your day.”
“Voices, an elaborate clarinet concerto mixing free jazz, Irish folk melody and funk. In the hands of a composer less assured, all that globe-trotting would seem like affectation; Bermel makes it an artistic imperative.”
Score & Parts Rental
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Program Notes
"Voices" is a three-movement work for clarinet and orchestra commissioned by the American Composers Orchestra with support from the Cary Trust, and dedicated to the composer's father. The work was premiered with the ACO at Carnegie Hall on May 24, 1998, with the composer as soloist and Tan Dun conducting, and has been performed by the Boston Modern Orchestra Project and the Albany Symphony Orchestra (New York). The first two movements are played without pause. Each movement examines a different facet of the vocal capabilities of the clarinet and the orchestra. The clarinet player explores a myriad of techniques and the orchestral players respond to the soloist's calls, either by imitation or through accompaniment.
The first movement, "Id", evokes sounds of shouting, laughing, and mumbling. In certain cases an entire section of the orchestra, or even a tutti, may emulate the sound of one voice. Pitch clusters, rather than traditional melodic lines, are used to evoke the tonal indistinctness associated with speech. The strings achieve vocal effects through a combination of bowings, articulations and portamenti; the woodwinds with accents and glissandi; the brass by using hands (horns), plungers (trombones) or derby hats (trumpets); and the electric guitar with a wa-wa pedal.
The second movement, "She Moved Thru the Fair", deals primarily with techniques of inflection associated with Irish music. Particularly characteristic of this idiom is the use of grace notes to evoke the vocal technique of "keening", which can embellish and dramatize a simple melodic line. This movement also explores a particular type of phrasing prevalent in folk singing: melismas extending over the barline, which both create and relax tension by playing against the metric constructs of the accompanimental rhythm.
The third movement, "Jamm on Toast." also focuses on song; however it features vocal techniques more commonly associated with funk and big-band music, including growl tones and flutter tongues on wind instruments and heavy vibrato on string instruments. The clarinet again employs glissandi, however this time its function is more soulful than lyrical, and its swooping lines are punctuated by swung rhythms in the winds, percussion, electric guitar, and electric bass.