Days

In my composition for bass clarinet and bassoon entitled "Days," I have compiled ten short musical thoughts. Each one differently reflects the passage of time by either creating dramatically gestural shapes, or by developing brief abstract processes, or by variably mixing the degree of these compositional approaches. The relationship between the two instruments alternates between sections of individual shaping of each part in counterpoint with each other and sections in which the two different instrumental sounds tend to blend into one.

(Stefan Hakenberg, 2014)

Meine Komposition "Days" für Bass-Klarinette und Fagott ist eine Abfolge von zehn kurzen musikalische Gedanken. Jedes der kleinen Stückchen reflektiert den Verlauf von Zeit unterschiedlich, entweder durch das Skizzieren dramatisch gestischer Formen oder die Entwicklung kurzer abstrakter Prozesse, durch das Einschwingen kleiner Klangflächen oder die Einbeziehung des Raums in die Klangdisposition, oder durch variables Mischen dieser kompositorischen Ansätze. Die Stimmen der beiden Instrumente stehen in manchen Abschnitten unabhäng, kontrapunktisch zu einander, in anderen Abschnitten neigen die Klänge der beiden Instrumente zur Mischung. Die Titel der einzelnen Stücke können als Interpretationsvorschläge für Spieler und Zuhörer verstanden werden und stehen in assoziativem Kontrast zu einander.

(Stefan Hakenberg, 2016)

German composer Stefan Hakenberg is currently working in Darmstadt, and although that city no longer has quite the reputation it used to, you might feel some of its influence on his work Days (1996) for bassoon and bass clarinet. Written in two “Books” of five short pieces each, the work interrogates the possibilities of combination of these two instruments that inhabit the lower end of the scale. The ten pieces have evocative but inscrutable titles: What “Rome” has in common with the Italian city seems to have less to do with monuments or history than with traffic; “Aeolian” felt like it was about wind, not about the mode of the same name – but it wasn’t especially breezy. “Menuet” did have a cockeyed triple-time feel to it, and “Miniature” was especially brief. Although the material of each movement is quite different, Days has certain favored processes: bringing the instruments close together with similar material so that their very different overtones mesh and clash; or having them sing their lines in dramatically different registers. It is an exploration of contrast, both in close quarters and in extremity. There’s just a touch of dramatics as well: the last movement of the first book, “Interludes”, is played on the reeds detached from the instruments, and it is a testament to the composer and the players that the kazoo sounds that emerged inspired only brief laughter: there was actually something to listen to. In the next movement, “Poem”, Underhill walked to the back wall and played with her back to the audience briefly, then exited. “Under Fabric”, which followed, was an aria for bass clarinet (played by Diane Heffner) with Underhill playing pedal points from the wings.

(The Boston Musical Intelligencer, Brian Schuth, 2014)