Duel
For bass clarinet and ensemble

This work is a duel between the clarinet and bass clarinet. However, this duel doesn’t explicitly occur until midway through the composition. Prior to that, the two characters are explored through the development of a main motive in solo passages for both instruments. This motive is then treated like a heavy metal riff: through power chords consisting of parallel octaves and fifths – reference to heavy metal in this work seemed only logical after I had written an arrangement of a song by thrash metal band Slayer for Standing Wave last year! Two versions of this developed power-chord motive are set against each other in contrapuntal fashion in two groups within the ensemble, moving at different tempos simultaneously. It is as if the ensemble is trying to amplify or settle the argument between the two clarinets.

The idea for Duel came after exchanging ideas with bass-clarinetist Cris Inguanti, who commissioned me to compose a quasi solo work for him and our friends from the Standing Wave Ensemble. In one of our emails Cris wrote: “the more I think about it, the more alluring it is to have two equal clarinet parts that interact with each other, as opposed to one that is more prominent. This can range anywhere, of course, from pairing the highest of Eb writing with the lowest of bass clarinet, to two bass clarinets dueling it out.”

Edward Top, 2016