Solo XII

New musical piece for bass clarinet and electronics

Composition – Claudio F. Baroni
Bass Clarinet – Gareth Davis

Premiere – May 2021, Den Haag

Exact performance dates and places will be updated soon.

This new piece has been written especially for bass clarinetist Gareth Davis and the music was developed in direct collaboration of the composer and the virtuoso himself. They were discovering new ways how to expand the sonic possibilities of the acoustic instrument and delve into the sound world that falls between contemporary classical and ambient rock and dance music.

”As with previous solos, collaboration with instrumentalists is essential, it is a starting point for musical ideas. I try to start thinking about the instrument from the non-knowledge, or in any case, to start knowing it from the qualities of the performer. I always keep in mind the metaphor of Morton Feldman, who said that he wrote music like a tailor sews a tailor-made suit. In this case “that suit” is sewn, embroidered and made by the two of us, step by step, assembling and disassembling, with different fabrics and colours, generating a sound surface that moves on the threshold of the audible, in that limit where the sound phenomena fluctuates between the audible and the inaudible. As for the intervention of electronics, in this work we use three pedals: delay, reverb and loop station. The use of pedals/electronics opens the door to another sonic dimension that relates to space and its environment. As soon as the electronics intervene, the acoustic sound of the instrument changes its character and its established relationships with space, resonances and echoes, constantly re-contextualizing itself by acquiring a three-dimensional physicality.”
– Claudio F. Baroni, about this piece