2019 Clarinetfest Concert Program

TAMUC Clarinet Choir

At Clarinetfest 2019
University of Tennessee— Knoxville
Cox Auditorium
Saturday, July 27, 2019
10:30 a.m.

 

Concert Program

Dr. Ryan M. Yahl, conductor
Dr. Jennifer Glidden, soloist

 

I Giardini della Villa d’Este (1979) by Robert Groslot
for 25 Clarinets and Soprano
Per Mutation (2019)* by Ben Stonaker
for 25 Clarinets and Soprano

*World Premiere Performance

 

Program Notes for the World Premiere:

Per Mutation (2019) was commissioned by Dr. Mary Alice Druhan for performance at the2019 ICA ClarinetFest in Knoxville, TN. As a contrasting piece to Robert Groslot’s “I Giardini della Villa d’Este” (of the same instrumentation), it seemed appropriate to make this more of a short theatrical piece that would be rhythmically driven with a dab of humor and nonsense text. When writing the text for the work, there was only one rule I set for myself – each word must be extracted from the letters in “P-E-R-M-U-T-A-T-I-O-N”. There are a wide variety of musical terms present (i.e. tempo, tenuto, meno, piano, trumpet, opera, etc.) which eventually helped organize the events within the work. From an out-of-tune excerpt from Mozart’s Clarinet Concerto, to the performers playing on mouthpieces and buzzing into the instruments, the music mixes the colors of the instrumentation in numerous ways with a text that seems to be incoherent and silly. As with much live vocal music with large ensembles, the text is often covered up and hard to hear. This specific element became a catalyst that led to some bizarre phrases and interesting word combinations taken from the letters in the title. And, as the title suggests, there are mutations that occur within the pitch series presented, rhythms heard, and overall structure of the piece.  ~Ben Stonaker