CHRISTOS HATZIS

Extreme Unction Bass Clarinet & String Orchestra

P R O M E T H E A N E D I T I O N S

EXTREME UNCTIONChristos Hatzis

Facsimile Study Score

(2011)

was commissioned by Sinfonia Toronto for Jeff Reilly with financial support from the Ontario Arts Council.

This edition is a facsimile of the original score provided by the composer.

© 2011 Promethean Editions LimitedPO Box 10-143

WellingtonNEW ZEALAND

www.promethean-editions.com+64 4 473 5033+64 4 473 5066

christos hatzis  

 

program notes Extreme  Unction  is  the  name  given  to  the  last  rite  of  the  Catholic  Church  reserved  for  people  who  are  on  the  threshold  of  passing  from  the  material  consciousness  and  state  of  being  to  a  different  one.  It  was  commissioned  by  Sinfonia  Toronto  for  my  good  friend  (and  bass  clarinettist  extraordinaire)  Jeff  Reilly  with  financial  assistance  from  the  Ontario  Arts  Council.  As  the  title  implies,  Extreme  Unction  is  a  dark  piece  about  dying  and  the  difficult  but  inevitable  transformation  from  a  physical  consciousness  to  a  higher  one.  It  depicts  the  quiet  opening  of  the  floodgates  of  the  Spirit,  as  our  connection  to  the  material  world  weakens  and  eventually  ceases  altogether.  This  process  is  often  not  a  willing  surrender.  It  alternates  between  our  sense  of  an  approaching  light  and  the  peace  and  joy  that  accompany  it  and  the  often  violent  efforts  of  our  physical  body  to  cling  on  to  that  which  we  already  know  and  hold  dear.  

The  idea  of  musically  treating  the  two  contradicting  emotions  that  physical  death  engenders  has  been  with  me  for  quite  some  time.  However,  it  was  not  until  I  first  witnessed  Jeff  Reilly's  amazing  ability  to  quickly  navigate  between  the  sonic  extremes  of  darkness  and  despair  on  one  hand  and  luminescence  and  peace  on  the  other  that  I  realized  that  the  musical  treatment  of  this  subject  was  simply  waiting  all  this  time  for  Jeff  to  come  along.  Given  the  fluidity  of  his  playing,  impossible  to  capture  with  the  usual  timbral  snapshots  that  one  finds  in  catalogued  extended  techniques  for  the  instrument,  I  decided  to  start  with  extensive  workshops  with  Jeff  before  embarking  on  the  actual  composition.  In  November  2009,  I  visited  Halifax,  Nova  Scotia,  where  Jeff  lives  and  works,  and  recorded  his  bass  clarinet  sounds  in  several  sessions  during  the  course  of  a  week.  Jeff  gave  me  passages  of  extended  techniques  (multiphonic  sequences,  cascading  the  overtone  series,  playing  in  extreme  registers  and  dynamics  and  singing  and  playing  at  the  same  time)  and  some  improvised  playing  which  was  more  elegant  than  anything  I  could  hope  to  compose  for  him.  Once  back  in  Toronto,  I  started  cataloguing  all  this  material  and  combined  smaller  segments  of  Jeff's  playing  with  my  own  MIDI  interpolations  in  order  to  create  a  clarinet  part  that  best  described  my  artistic  intentions  for  this  work.  The  orchestration  for  the  strings  included  semiotically-­‐rich  timbres,  such  as  violent  gesturing,  microtonally  tuned  overtone  spectra,  an  ever-­‐present  heartbeat-­‐like  sound  in  the  lower  strings  and  distant  echoes  of  Doppler  effects  reminiscent  of  passing  ambulances.  All  these  effects  notwithstanding,  the  creative  spotlight  always  remains  focused  on  the  bass  clarinet  and  its  wide  sonic  and  dramatic  pallet.  

This  unorthodox  way  of  working  (using  pre-­‐recorded  and  often  extensive  sound  complexes  as  building  blocks  for  composition)  meant  that  I  was  constantly  hearing  Jeff  "performing"  the  piece  that  I  was  still  in  the  process  of  composing.  The  manipulation  of  the  material,  however,  was  such  that  novel  ways  of  musical  notation  had  to  be  invented  and  further  workshops  with  Jeff  were  necessary  to  ensure  that  the  thus  manipulated  material  was  still  possible  on  his  instrument.  Jeff  was  encouraging:  "if  I  did  it  once,  I  should  be  able  to  do  it  again,  no  matter  how  much  you  twist  it."    

Half  notated,  half  improvised,  Extreme  Unction  is  a  composition  that  allows  for  an  imaginary  glimpse  of  our  afterlife  and  of  our  instinctive  struggle  to  cling  on  to  the  things  we  know.  It  is  a  meditation  on  dying  and  on  what  may  lie  beyond,  as  well  as  a  (hopefully)  early  attempt  to  come  to  terms  with  this  important  and  inevitable  milestone  in  my  own  life.    

 

 

 

 

 

 

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bass clarinet & strings Two  systems  of  microtonal  tunings  are  used  in  Extreme  Unction:  quarter-­‐tones  and  third-­‐tones.  The  following  notation  marks  denote  this  notation:  

  two  thirds  of  a  tone  flat  (from  the  natural  pitch)  

  quarter-­‐tone  sharp  (from  the  natural  pitch)  

  quarter-­‐tone  flat  (from  the  natural  pitch)  

When  the  pitches  of  the  overtone  series  are  the  result  of  a  natural  glissando  on  either  the  bass  clarinet  or  the  strings  (in  other  words,  when  they  do  not  need  to  be  tuned  specifically  by  the  player),  the  microtonally  altered  pitches  of  the  overtone  series  are  notated  with  their  closest  neighbour  in  the  equal  temperament  tuning  system.  This  is  done  to  avoid  unnecessary  notational  complexity.  

 

bass clarinet stems  with  no  noteheads  indicate  pitches  of  the  performer's  choice  within  the  general  register  where  the  stem  ends.  

small  noteheads  indicate  approximate  pitches  on  or  very  close  to  the  indicated  pitch.  

Instructions  for  the  production  of  the  indicated  extended  techniques  accompany  the  music  in  the  score  and  the  bass  clarinet  part.  Please  consult  the  available  demo  recording  for  more  clarity  

as  to  the  desired  sonic  result.  

 

horizontal  arrow  indicates  a  gradual  transition  from  the  instruction  at  the  left  to  that  at  the  right  of  the  arrow.  

 

 "play  and  sing":  sing  through  the  mouthpiece  while  playing  so  that  very  complex  sound  complexes  occur  as  a  result.  

When  the  word  "identical"  with  a  horizontal  bracket  is  used,  the  material  under  the  bracket  should  be  an  identical  and  mechanical  repetition  of  the  material  that  just  preceded  this  indication.  The  effect  should  be  reminiscent  of  mechanical  looping.  

Even  though  pitches  or  other  musical  parameters  are  left  unspecified,  the  performer  still  needs  to  adhere  to  this  principle  of  identical  replication  of  the  material  (s)he  just  played.  

 

multiphonics  and  other  extended  techniques  are  shown  with  the  main  fingerings  indicated  as  open  or  closed  holes  and/or  with  additional  verbal  instructions.  The  rhomboid  lower  notehead  indicates  the  fundamental  which  should  be  audible  all  the  time.  

 

"slap  tongue."  the  technique  is  produce  by  closing  the  reed  off  and  creating  a  suction  in  the  mouthpiece  and  then  releasing  that  suction  by  an  explosive  click  of  the  tongue  and  a  simultaneous  injection  of  air.  It  should  sound  like  a  very  loud  "pizzicato"  sound.  

 

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Extreme Unction

Christos Hatzis

Copyright © 2011 Christos Hatzis & Promethean EditionsAll Rights Reserved

for bass clarinet and strings

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3

J

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J

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3

3

&

#

#

4

5

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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

J

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"CADENZA" (c. 45-60")

J

&

#

#

4

5

4

4

228

>>

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(sing and play)

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K8

Extreme Unction8

The bass clarinet cadenza should feel less like a virtuosic display of extended techniques and more as a last defiant act against death. It should be angst-driven, dark and gestural but with no rhyme or reason (the gestures should feel dissociated and uncontrolled.) There should be extremes of register, dynamics and density and all available energy should be expended. As the cadenza is approaching its end, the "convulsions" should be separated by increasing amounts of silence with no movement on stage either by the performer or the orchestra during those moments of silence. The last silence should be inordinately long. In the material towards the end the highest note available to the player should be emphasized (the same pitch should start the descending motion of measure 228.

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