Midnight Choirs
2014
Conceived almost entirely as an algorithm, yet drawing on the traditions of folk singing and the buzzing of evening cicadas. Melodic lines played on the bass clarinet are multiplied by live processing of pitch and spectrum until they form cascades of choirs.
Dedicated to Marij van Gorkom.
Team
- Original performer
- Marij van Gorkom
Performances
- 24 Apr 2022 · 15:00The Mendel Center at Lake Michigan College, 1100 Yore Ave, Benton Harbor, MI 49022, USA
- 2 Feb 2019 · 17:30Zurich University of the Arts, Pfingstweidstrasse 96, 8005 Zürich, Switzerland
- 2 Feb 2019 · 16:30Zurich University of the Arts, Pfingstweidstrasse 96, 8005 Zürich, Switzerland
- 10 Dec 2014 · 19:00Leicester University, UK
- 27 Nov 2014 · 19:00SARC, Belfast, UK
- 19 Oct 2014 · 16:00Muziekhuis Utrecht
- 25 May 2014 · 15:00Studio Annelie de Man, Amsterdam
Reviews
Works for bass clarinet are, traditionally, bloody difficult to learn and perform, and composers like to extract every ounce of virtuosic ability from the performer. Midnight Choirs challenges this notion and, in a way, reacts to the repertoire. It is a masterclass on how a sound-world can transcend and betray what looks like fairly simple musical notation. The complexity stems from the interaction between the bass clarinet and the live electronics — pitch shifters, in this case. Both acoustic and electroacoustic fuse into what is, for the most part, a seamless continuum. A delicate and quite fragile piece, restricted and limited but never free from intensity and musical tension.
Read more, December 2014