The Poetics Of A Multiphonic Landscape
(2019)
author(s): Torben Snekkestad
connected to: Rhythmic Music Conservatory, Copenhagen
published in: Research Catalogue
The project is an artistic research project focusing on the saxophones ability to produce multiphonics (multiple sounds on an instrument considered monophonic). It is a personal artistic exploration into the process of unfolding the poetics of these complex sonics and a reflection over the process, methods and the creation of an album trilogy, consisting of acoustic solo music recorded during the research period.
The main question I have been asking myself during this project has been:
What happens if the raw musical material, in the creation of a set of solo saxophone works, is based on the multiphonics only and what this material in itself suggest – possibly independent of any stylistic affiliation?
My main objective was to examine why the saxophone’s multiphonics have such a captivating effect on me. How could I possibly explore their intrinsic qualities and unfold the poetic potential in them? By the same token, my ambition was to find a suitable artistic context for this enamored relationship that so heavily has stirred the waves of my imagination.
In the reflection text on the project, I disclose how some unexpected paths during this pursuit revealed themselves. From sprouting interest toward underwater soundscapes, to the making of a hybrid instrument called reed-trumpet; and how my personal catalog of multiple sounds found its place, not in a public pdf-document or book release, but in a German wooden archive box.
I relay in what way I began to take on the intrinsic qualities of the multiphonics and the reason why an oscillation between artistic intention and action is so pivotal for an improviser. To make sure that the project had this focus at all time I sat up a dogma that contains a list of eight fundamental criteria that manifest the intentions and structure as well as sharpen the working methods.
The deep-rooted microtonality of the bass clarinet
(last edited: 2023)
author(s): Henri Bok
connected to: Academy of Creative and Performing Arts
This exposition is in progress and its share status is: visible to all.
The existing literature only partly acknowledges the microtonal possibilities of the bass clarinet, restricting the options mainly to quartertones. When measured, the results of the proposed fingering patterns are often approximative.
This PhD project of Henri Bok proposes a new microtonal approach of the bass clarinet, further developing the instrument’s capability to produce not only exact quartertones, but also smaller units: eighth-tones and 31-tones. The ‘root-overtone’ microtonality of the bass clarinet is explored as well, using the natural overtones which can be generated on top of roots, as a means to create more microtonal variants, often in the form of nano tones. The numerous fingering patterns that are the outcome of this research have been documented in the appendices. All these fingering patterns are shown in combined audio/video recordings. Instruction and demonstration videos clarify the different subjects of this research. Audio recordings illustrate the use of the microtonal bass clarinet playing in the pieces which were the result of the collaboration with several interested composers. The findings are also applied in a number of compositions of the author. The extension of the bass clarinet’s microtonal possibilities presented here will allow bass clarinettists, composers and other instrumentalists to inform and enrich their creative processes.