Extinction (2022)
for B clarinet and fixed media
Suspicious Motives Music
Extinction
for B clarinet and fixed media (duration 7:00)
Duration 7 minutes
Composed between April 20 and May 9, 2022 with the support of a Bogliasco Foundation Fellowship
Performance Notes
The clarinet staff is transposed, sounding a major second below notated pitches. Accidentals follow the tonal convention and carry through the bar, in octave.
The multiphonic fingerings provided are from Gregory Oaks’ website and I wish to thank and credit Greg and Heather Roche for their excellent advice.
Clarinet should be mixed with the fixed media to create a coherent blend. In some spaces, this will require a microphone and subtle use of digital effects.
Except where specifically noted, the text is spoken. The effect of this text leans at first toward the humerous and then moves to a darker meaning. Each performer should find their own way to create this progression, being mindful not to over or under emote. Expressive directions are provided as a starting point. The rhythms provided for the spoken text are a guide and need not be taken literally. In a few instances, pitch contours are also provided as a guide to possible inflection.
The character of the music can change rapidly, and the player should seek to hieghten these contrasts taking cues from the text and expressive notations. Some of the motives are meant to connect to out historical musical memory, for example, dotted figures derive from the baroque overture and can be stately, elegant or herioc.
In measure 88, the player lowers the clarinet in response to the phrase “Eye contact”, and is free here to choose an additional, subtle response (or not), such as making eye contact with the audience, briefly covering your eyes with one hand, or another action that seems appropriate for the moment.
Composer Biography
Eric Chasalow is a composer, sound artist, multi-instrumentalist, record producer, teacher, and advisor to non-profits. He is well known for works that combine instruments with electronic sound, but has collaborated on a wide range of projects with Guido Arbonelli (Perugia), Tony Arnold (NYC), Lucia Bova (Rome), Tim Brady (Montreal), Bruno Schneider (Basel), Vicki Ray (LA), Talea Ensemble (NYC), Musicatreize (Marseille), New York New Music Ensemble, Network for New Music (Philadelphia), Boston Modern Orchestra Project, and many others. Current projects incorporate oral histories and environmental sound to comment on a number of global themes, including the cultural effects of climate change and species extinction.
Eric Chasalow is Irving G. Fine Professor of Music at Brandeis University, and Director of BEAMS, the Brandeis Electro-Acoustic Music Studio. In addition to residencies at Copland House, Bau at Camargo, MacDowell, and Bogliasco, he has been honored by the Guggenheim Foundation, Koussevitzky Music Foundation, National Endowment for the Arts, Fromm Foundation, New York Foundation for the Arts, and the American Academy of Arts and Letters. The Eric Chasalow collection in the Library of Congress was established in 2009. Additional information may be found at www.ericchasalow.com
Contact: chasalow@brandeis.edu
Extinction
If randomly allowing for a breath Perhaps a bit of tension
But then, back to business We don’t sing, We slog.
Our narrative should rely on riveting rivulets of sound shriek and moan words. Rhyme or not, who cares?
Eye contact filling our space with energy, demanding to be listened to, demand to be heard! Not passive! Speak.
Speak?!
But about what? And why?
This onslaught will persist. We will cease to notice violent swings that now seem shocking.
And, with each Diminishing our twilight. Then, completely dark By the thousands, the millions until nothing sings or even Breathes.
Barbara Cassidy and Eric Chasalow
Copyright © 2022. All Rights Reserved.
Extinction
improvised semi-pitched and unpitched vocal sounds with air – fingerings of your
Eric Chasalow (2022)
Blank to facilitate page turn
