VLCLEL, an album of three compositions for violin, bass clarinet and electronics written during the years 1999–2002 represents the first publication by Viennese label Aufstieg AV. Clarinet and Four Oscillators playfully researches methods leaving behind plain repetition, of establishing accepted progression from one thing to another. Duplex, based on a composition commissioned by Ballett Frankfurt, is an ever changing musical mobile for two instrumentalists and some electronics. Violin and Electronics concerns itself with new strategies in the creation of musical rules and their formalisation. And above everything else, the three pieces do sound rather nice.
Clarinet and Four Oscillators
Clarinet and Four Oscillators was premiered on 11/06/1999 by Stephan Neubauer at Alte Schmiede, Vienna.
The initial idea and motivation to compose Clarinet and Four Oscillators came from the musical idea presented at the composition’s beginning: The drop of a fifth followed by a steady pulse shifting between clarinet and sine-generator. Out of this arose what might be described as the piece’s main conceptual theme – the temporal horizon of listener prediction and the composer’s role in influencing it. Clarinet and Four Oscillators is an inquiry into the level of influence the composer yields over the listener’s ability to project specific meaning and thus it is an inquiry into the amount of influence the composer yields over the recipient’s level of structural listening. This is achieved by carefully scaling the amount of gestural, teleological content and ‘causal’ development presented.
As the work’s nucleus this descending fifth led to a reduction of the technical as well as sonic complexity to a bare minimum. The goal was to keep full control over all parameter changes and individual sonic events. Electronically produced sounds more complex than single sines were individually tuned by hand. At the beginning of the composition, electronic sounds are produced exclusively by two sine-generators in a simple amplitude modulation set-up. The later parts of the piece use four sine-generators in additive synthesis. For each of the additive synthesis chords in the last part of the composition, the frequencies and amplitudes of each of a chord’s four-sine generators were adjusted manually and by ear. The process of composing Clarinet and Four Oscillators did not follow any predefined plan, map or goal, but developed following a search for ways of leaving behind static repetition. It playfully researches methods of establishing accepted progression and examines the role listener expectation plays in the creation and perception of linear music.
Duplex
Duplex originated from the soundtrack to Michael Klien’s choreography Duplex commissioned by Ballett Frankfurt.
This choreography, as well as its soundtrack was re-mixed and re-structured algorithmically (programming by Nick Rothwell) during every performance. Based on this soundtrack the modular composition Duplex for violin, bass clarinet and electronics evolved. The two (or four) musicians chose the sequence as well as the amount of overlap and repetition of the different modules before each performance thus re-arranging the material into ever new forms of Duplex.
Violin and Electronics
Violin and Electronics was premiered on 20/01/2001 by Weiping Lin at City University London.
Violin and Electronics is organised in seven sections between one and 4.5 minutes. On one hand it concerns itself with possibilities for the creation of new musical rules and their formalisation. On the other hand it investigates in its opening two sections the recipient’s temporal horizon, the composer’s influence over it and ramifications of this influence on the structural design of compositions. And above everything else, it sounds rather nice.
Musicians
Weiping Lin – violin
Petra Stump – bass clarinet
Volkmar Klien – electronics
Tracks
001 / Clarinet and Four Oscillators
8'56" / MP3 (excerpt)
002 / Duplex
24'15" / MP3 (excerpt)
003–009 / Violin and Electronics
23'48" / MP3 (excerpt)
Released in March 2006 / All tracks written and produced by Volkmar Klien
