Flowers of Clarinet Vol. 2: Contemporary Italian Composers & The Clarinet

Description

Angela Floccari

Memory & Oblivion: the piece was composed with the wish to create an enjoyable and appeasing work. I let myself be inspired principally by the flow of feelings which found their natural embodiment in this style, without hardness and display of virtuosity. By listening to Memory & Oblivion one can immerse himself into an assuaging atmosphere, whereby the deepest experiences resurface in one’s memory. The piece is offered in the duo version with the clarinet in B flat; at the beginning, it proposes an opaque and husky timbre, while later it sweetens its voice, becoming characteristically velvety and elegant.

Gianfranco Messina

Il Clarinetto magico / Cythère: the piece originates as the musical translation of Verlaine’s poem Cythère: the beguiling atmosphere of its first lines is rendered in sound through the warm timbre of the clarinet’s middle-low register; the text’s delicate lights are represented through the clothing of the multiphonics; the concluding section, which is subtly playful, through staccato sounds and uncommon pianistic leaps; its persistent sensuality through fluttertongue and by employing the farthest registers of the piano.

Antonio Fraioli

Mutazioni: Written in 2018, it is a work shaped by the continuous metamorphosis of the musical elements it contains. It is dedicated to the Sicilian clarinetist Domenico Calia; in order to delineate such transformations, it employs, among others, glissato techniques, slap, fluttertongue, and singing into the instrument.

Salvatore Simonetta

Piano-Clarinet Improvisation: this piece originates from thematic ideas excerpted from Chopin’s repertoire; it is enriched by new sound materials, conferring a “sparkling”, and sometimes “funny” touch to the whole work.

Vincenzo Napoli

Elegia n. 1: This work is based on two themes: the first is in the minor mode and has a melancholic-expressive character; the second, in the major mode, has a cantabile-expressive character. Together, they aim at describing two aspects of my wonderful homeland, Sicily. In the first part, the protagonist is melancholy – a velvety melancholy, which caresses and touches lightly some almost imperceptible points of the soul –, while, in the second part, one finds the serenity, the joy and the light of a magnificent land.

Ignazio Messina

Sonata: The Moderato puts into relief some rhythmical aspects such as the syncopation; the frequent changes of tempo (hemiolas), together with the accents, give to the piece a brilliant and playful character. The last part is marked by free cadenzas, with dynamic features which presently give to the piece a calm and placid character; its flowing features contribute to an ever-increasing dynamic crescendo. The piece is concluded by the initial vibrato, almost always in diminuendo, giving it a mysterious aspect.

Trittico: The first movement is a Gregorian plainchant, putting into relief the instrument’s low register through frequent rhythmic changes. The second movement is initially characterized by a complex articulation of sounds with a particular technical difficulty, culminating in a cadenza. Later it assumes a playful character, highlighted by repeated rhythmical structures up to some accented quadruplets reminiscent of the style of jazz. The third movement has a theme with a nearly always constant rhythmical structure; the accents are reiterated at the intervals of third and fourth, concluding with repeated notes in a dissonant style.

Sonatina: The Moderato has a lively and brilliant personality, and is characterized by leaps of seventh and ninth and by trills ended in cadenzas. In the piece’s central section, a rhythmic sequence is repeated identically, with the use of the “flatt.”, a particular clarinet technique (fluttertongue), while several melodic fragments are reiterated with frequent rests. The piece finishes with a unison note on the cadenza/cadence.

Sonatina in G minor: The piece is articulated into three movements. The first movement, Allegro, has a pressing and lively rhythm, highlighted in the clarinet’s part by quick gestures in semiquavers, both ascending and descending. The second movement, Cantabile, has an expressive character: the musical theme is put into relief alternately by the clarinet and the piano. The third movement comes back to the initial theme of the first, concluding with dynamic variants.

Nunzia Luca

MED: It is an intensely suggestive piece. Two slow brooks arrive to a lake, where the creatures live according to Nature’s laws. A flower in blossom celebrates the first of such laws, i.e. that of the minimal effort. A young girl dances without Salome’s wickedness. After a rest, the brooks are reddened by blood, the flower withers, the girl is killed or sacrifices herself for her fatherland… The water’s freedom pours forth from the fibers of the “wood-”winds, which are wise and gentle instruments, impregnated in memory. The theme reappears, unentangled, but for the faun’s dreams: Nature is more alive than ever. (Daniele Moretto)

Simona Simonini

Brand: This piece’s freedom, as concerns both composition and performance, highlights the extreme possibilities of a virtuoso clarinet. Thus, its title, BRAND, puts into relief the perceptive, captivating and emotive aspect driving the entire piece; this is characterized by wide arpeggios, reaching the extreme registers of the instrument; these arpeggios come to a halt on repeated notes, then proceed uncertainly on the staccatos and emerge in an unforeseen and unexpected gesture, affirming their identity as a continuing game of sounds.

Agnese Sanna

Omaggio a Pippo Barzizza is a work aiming at evoking and referring to the musical Italy of the Forties, a moment when swing and jazz were mostly played. Normally, when one speaks of these two genres, the thought goes to the great overseas masters, such as Duke Ellington or Louis Armstrong, neglecting to give a look inside one’s home. With this small, but simple and hearty piece, I wished to pay a living tribute to the memory of a very important figure in the Italian history of music, i.e. Pippo Barzizza. He was the conductor of the EIAR orchestra, a refined composer and arranger, a pioneer who brought jazz and the concept of arrangement into the Bel Paese. This piece is an opportunity to look at that person and at that moment with a grain of healthy nostalgia, telling the whole country: “We have a beautiful history of music of our own; let’s bring it to the fore!”.

Adriana Marconi

PRISMA (Prism) Like through a prism, when the purity of glass and lines meets the light and makes colors shine, in the same way the clear voice of the clarinet sweetly flows through the thousand shades of the guitar creating a rich and elegant polyphonic dialogue.

COSMICOINCANTO (Cosmic enchantment) Looking at the sky and wandering through the stars, where the poets’ dreams shine… that is how “Cosmicoincanto” was born! The melodic line of the clarinet floats dreamy and free through the sound space woven by the arpeggios of the guitar and creates an orderly harmonic ensemble.

Giuseppe Testa

Pensieri: This piece, dated March 1992, is dedicated to my dearest teacher of solfege, Italia Natale, who was the first to guess my compositional gifts and to encourage me to study composition. The work can be divided into three distinct moments. The initial theme, based on five notes employed in continuously varying rhythmic figures, is the musical transposition of the human mind’s strain due to the constant “thoughts” dominating our life. A second theme, with a syncopated, almost rocking pace, seems to open a glimmer of hope, as if a forthcoming joy would finally find its realization. Suddenly, the reprise of the first theme brings us back to anxiety and fear. However, since there are not only… thoughts, the human being’s capability to dream makes the rainbow shine, as if anticipating a better time. With this hope, the piece concludes, by developing a third, concluding theme, articulated in a dialogue between  the instruments, closing in a whisper on the last chord, in the major mode.

Gianfranco Messina

Building: The piece was freely inspired by the Allegory of Good and Bad Government in Sienna. It begins with distinct sounds, each presented by an instrument; these are symbolic elements alluding to the citizens’ individual personality. After a phase of conflict, it realizes a virtuoso synthesis in which each of the five instruments presents a melody obtained by uniting the single initial notes with some elements of the section of conflict, which are however transfigured into a luminous finale. The clarinet always acts as a unifying factor, both on the melodic and on the rhythmic plane.