INSTRUMENTAL SOLO AND ENSEMBLE MUSIC.(Review)

Mauricio Kagel. Schattenklange: Drei Stucke fur Ba[beta]klarinette. Frankfurt am Main: Henry Litolff's Verlag/C. F. Peters, c1997. [Performance notes in Ger., Eng., p. i-iii; score, 14 p.; performance snapshots, 2 p. Litolff/Peters Nr. 8887. DM29; duration: ca. 11'.]

Hitomi Kaneko. Espace/Brume pour marimba et clarinette basse. Tokyo: Zen-On Music, c1998. (Chamber Music, 31.) [Performance notes in Fr., Eng., Jap., 3 p.; score, p. 5-19. ISBN 4-11-590184-5; ZCM -031. [yen] 1,200; duration: ca. 7'.]

Edward Jacobs. Engage the Mountain: [For] Clarinet (Bass Clarinet) and Percussion (1 Player). New York: C. F. Peters, c1998. [Notes, 1 p.; score, 20 p. (spiral bound) and part. Edition Peters No. 67829. $14.95; duration: ca. 11'.]

Edward Jacobs. "I've Shook My Fists at the Sky" (Meditation and Agitation): [For] Clarinet Solo. New York: C. F. Peters, c1996. [Score, 7 p. Edition Peters No. 67727. $10; duration: ca. 8 1/2'. ]

It was not long after the adoption of the clarinet into the orchestra in the late eighteenth century that instrument makers invented the bass clarinet. In 1836, Giacomo Meyerbeer used it as a solo obbligato accompaniment in Les Huguenots for the scene where the protagonists Raoul and Valentine recite their wedding vows to Raoul's servant Marcel, who marries them before the Catholic soldiers storm the church and the wedded couple die as martyrs. At the premiere, the solo bass clarinet must have created quite an unusual anti other-worldly affect at this very dramatic point in the opera. The subsequent use of the bass clarinet in the opera orchestra and the improved instrumental design by Adolphe Sax at the same time made it possible for the bass clarinet to become a regular member of the orchestra.

Although the bass clarinet was, for the most part, invented and improved in France, it was featured most prominently in the orchestral writing of Richard Wagner, Richard Strauss, and Gustav Mahler. Until fairly recently, however, composers were less inclined to use the bass clarinet in chamber music. The most notable examples are in compositions by Arnold Schoenberg, such as the Serenade, op. 24, the Suite, op. 29, and Pierrot Lunaire, and the wind sextet Mladi by Leos Janacek. In the last quarter of the twentieth century, however, there has been a much greater use of the instrument, due in part to the extraordinary virtuosos who commissioned works for the instrument, especially Harry Sparnaay in The Netherlands anti Josef Horak in the Czech Republic--all predated, of course, by the work of jazz bass clarinetist Eric Dolphy about a decade earlier.

Since the 1960s, Mauricio Kagel has been a leading avant-garde composer and has created a number of theater pieces. His 1995 Schattenklange (Shadow Sounds or Tones), which may also be performed in a regular concert version, is a recent example. Dedicated to Luciano Berio, the piece was commissioned by the city of Gutersloh and premiered on 7 October 1995. In the theater version, the barefoot bass clarinetist performs on a six-by-eight-foot podium placed behind a scrim, against which five spotlights, placed in different positions, are directed. The placement of the spotlights at different distances causes the player's body to cast overlapping shadows of different intensities on the scrim. A technician observing the performance fades the spotlights up and clown very gradually. The player is instructed to move slowly around the podium assunsing various positions and is advised to memorize the piece, or if music is used, to place the pages on the floor or use music stands, as long as the stands do not interfere with the shadows of the performer.