Bach - Tiensuu - Brass - Pagh-Paan -katzer: PLUS! – Works for Clarinet Duo and Accordion

PLUS! · WORKS FOR CLARINET DUO AND ACCORDION

In the repertoire of the clarinet duo Beate Zelinsky and David Smeyers, working together with other soloists or ensemble formations is an important part. The combination with the accordion is particularly appealing: the instrument can merge with the sound of the clarinets into (almost) perfect unity by means of registration, but it can also clearly emerge from this sound combination.

Jukka Tiensuu's composition Plus IV was originally conceived for clarinet, accordion and violoncello; the version with bass clarinet instead of cello was arranged by David Smeyers in consultation with the composer. This makes the sound more coherent, and yet the music remains completely transparent due to the subtle differences in timbre and register.

The material is initially limited – third and second motifs, repetitions, octave jumps. The notation suggests a unison - but in fact the performers are required to perform the music in a kind of improvised canon; Numerals in the notes indicate the sequence of entries. This changes in sections, separated by general pauses: a kind of composed self-organization by the ensemble.

This »prelude« takes up about a quarter of the composition, after which the score – now again notated »conventionally« – takes on its traditional role of regulating the interplay of the instruments. This is how the music gains the freedom to develop seamlessly, it gains in coherence, the melodic ambitus expands, chords and clusters come into play in the accordion part, syncopations, triplets, quintuplets give the whole thing a sustained 4/4 time from beginning to end rhythmic liveliness and even a certain swing. The whole thing ends in an ecstatic stretta in breathless, chasing semiquaver movements. The density only decreases in the last 30 or so bars, and the music ends with a short, almost natural fading.

The composition Songs and Melodies by Nikolaus Brass was written for the clarinet duo and Krisztián Palágyi. The title already refers to the pool of collectively shared musical tradition, whereby the "melody" as a horizontal line is the primary material, so to speak, which is supplemented by the vertical, the harmony, in the finished song setting. These two dimensions correspond to the instruments used: clarinets as melody instruments, accordion just as Chord-instrument (in harmonic and  rhythmic function). Beyond that, however, the composer is concerned with something more elementary than traditional melody models: it is the »Melic« per se, even before it is consolidated in melody and (tonal) harmony. And that includes the microtones, which are a central element of the composition.
The constant deviation from the "norm" of the intervals in the tempered system, the play with "pure", "tempered" and "detuned" intervals and their superimposition causes uncertainty in the listener, which in turn allows the connection to certain traditional reception patterns. In this context, Nikolaus Brass speaks of the "physical vibration curve" that is transformed by listening into a "physical-spiritual vibration curve" and can thus be connected to the "fund of our associations".
For example (and really only example) a nocturnal, (alp) dreamlike scenery would be imaginable. The sentence headings provide appropriate information: Shadowy - Flitting - Dark - Shimmering. In doing so, the composer definitely falls back on topoi of the »uncanny« in music: the sudden isolation of an instrument (there are solos of a clarinet and the accordion), the darkening of the sound through the use of a basset horn, frightening fortissimo accents, alienating split sounds in a clarinet passage to be performed »cantando« … none of it superficially or unequivocally, but rather slightly irritating.
The penultimate movement begins fortissimo, with an almost screaming third sound sharpened by microtonal beats (glare, afterimages): And one is tempted to think of the cockcrow that wakes the sleeper and squints confused in the broad daylight. The after-effects of the dream experience only gradually disappear and become Farewell Finally said goodbye to the above-mentioned final section: in opposing running movements, a classic musical representation of the wind, the nocturnal experience is completely blown away.

Ta Ryong In traditional Korean music, refers to »the repetition of a basic rhythm in a recurring four or six meter« (Younghi Pagh-Paan). "He plays a ta-ryong": That's what you say when someone keeps repeating themselves. Meanwhile, according to the composer, it is precisely the "almost unlimited possibility of variation of this always the same basis" that is so appealing, found above all in the Korean peasant music Nong-Ak. This invokes an associative context that ranges from the composer's childhood memories (the markets where acrobats, dancers and actors performed alongside the musicians) to the resistant potential of the Nong-Ak. Because this music from the people and for the people (Younghi Pagh-Paan describes it as »spontaneous music making in groups«) was also taken up by the students in the resistance against the South Korean military dictatorship of the 1960s and 1970s. The composer also wants to do this with her series of works, which has so far comprised six pieces Ta Ryong . remember
Ta Ryong V was conceived in 1995 for two clarinets and the Japanese mouth organ Shô, alternatively for accordion. An obvious choice, not only because of the similar sound - both instruments are capable of producing very long bands of sound. The tempo of the music, which is very measured despite the prescribed 6/8 time signature, follows the general East Asian principle that each individual note has a life of its own and does not only acquire its meaning from the respective context. Accordingly, the melodic movements are mainly to be understood as plays around or extensions of a single note. In memory of the two drummers who led a group of musicians in the tradition of Korean peasant music, the performers of Ta Ryong V additional percussion instruments.
The composer noted in 1988 that her music is based on Korean musical sensibilities, but tries to »reflect as precisely as possible the development of European art music in our century«. This happens through the extraordinarily fine and precisely worked out rhythm, which also breaks through the underlying six meter (i.e. the actual Ta-Ryong) several times.

Georg Katzener has his composition urgent, hesitant, evanescent from 2007 originally intended for clarinet, cello and accordion. The arrangement of the cello part for the bass clarinet, which was conceived very specifically for the instrument, was carried out by Katzener in collaboration with David Smeyers; it is one of his last completed works. The variety and the rapid change of tonal colors, playing techniques and articulations is a characteristic of the composition and is directly related to the title. Flageolets, trills and tremolos, extreme positions, extreme dynamics, many-tone chords and clusters, multiphonics (also with trills), long and short glissandi, microtones, frequent time changes, but also passages without meter: the listener is confronted with an overabundance of information ( the performance designation is »hyperactive«), the performers, on the other hand, have a task that is as difficult as it is rewarding. Because it is also an effective, highly virtuosic piece of music.
And yet the music conveys an uneasiness: the extreme level of activity at the beginning (urgently), which produces no development, but intertwined patterns of movement and a frenzied standstill (many sections of the composition are repeated, sometimes even several times, without the listener being aware of it); the sudden bursts of exhausted calm and the desperate and futile effort to return to the event density and energy of the beginning (hesitant); the gradual disintegration of the connection (disappearing). One can recognize qualities of a diagnosis of the times in it – for example with regard to the digital acceleration of the world. Although Georgkatzer warned against such concreteness (“Music is music first and foremost”): It could perhaps nevertheless be stated that this piece at least correlates very strongly with a contemporary attitude towards life.

Framing, separating and at the same time connecting, accompany five of the Two-Part Inventions the four new works by Johann Sebastian Bach, with an added third part. Four of these arrangements come from the School of trio playing, which Max Reger and Karl Straube intended for young organists to practice the independence of both hands and feet. A third, middle voice is inserted here between the two thematic entries of the original. In the version with two clarinets and accordion, the very dense polyphony gains amazing transparency. Helmut Lachenmann proceeds differently in his adaptation of the D minor Invention: He opens the movement by adding a treble, which also first to  the two thematic entrances of the original, and thus preserves the transparency of the music.

Ingo Dorfmuller

program:

Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750)
[01] Two Part Invention in C major, BWV 772 01:31
with a third part by Max Reger (1873–1916) / Karl Straube (1873-1950)
for clarinet, bass clarinet and accordion

Jukka Tiensuu (* 1948)
[02] Plus IV for clarinet, bass clarinet and accordion (1992) 11:11

Johann Sebastian Bach
[03] Two-Part Invention in E flat major, BWV 776 01:44
with a third part by Max Reger / Karl Straube
for clarinet, bass clarinet and accordion

Nicholas Brass (* 1949)
Songs and Melodies for two clarinets, basset horn (2.) and accordion (2019) 17:27
[04] 1. Introduction 03:11
[05] 2. Shadowy 01:21
[06] 3. Scurrying 01:44
[07] 4. Dark 04:39
[08] 5. Shimmering 01:37
[09] 6. Glare, afterimages 03:08
[10] 7. Farewell 01:47

Johann Sebastian Bach
[11] Two-Part Invention in d minor, BWV 775 01:06
with a third part by Helmut Lachenmann (* 1935)
for clarinet, bass clarinet and accordion

Younghi Pagh Paan (* 1945)
[12] Ta Ryong V (1995) 12:16
for two clarinets (with shell chimes) and accordion (with woodblocks)

Johann Sebastian Bach
[13] Two-Part Invention in a minor, BWV 784 01:22
with a third part by Max Reger and Karl Straube
for clarinet, bass clarinet and accordion

george katzer (1935-2019)
[14] urgent, hesitant, evanescent . 15:37
for clarinet, bass clarinet and accordion

Johann Sebastian Bach
[14] Two part in F major, BWV 779 01:02
with a third part by Max Reger / Karl Straube
for clarinet, bass clarinet and accordion

Total playing time: 63:23

The clarinet duo Beate Zelinsky | David Smeyers
Beate Zelinsky: B flat clarinet and A clarinet (Pagh-Paan)
David Smeyers: B flat clarinet, basset horn (brass) and bass clarinet

Krisztian Palagyi, accordion