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Interference (1996-2000) |
The title of
Interference refers to the patterns produced by interacting beams of
electromagnetic radiation or subatomic particles, as in the famous "two-slit
experiment". This experiment, simple and straightforward in itself, nevertheless
has deep and unresolved implications for the nature of physical reality, leading
as it does to the mysterious and (presently?) unanswerable question of what
is "really happening" at the quantum level of space and time.
Such ideas permeate the structure of the composition in various ways. It is
also in another sense a work of speculation, in that the contrabass clarinet
is itself a relatively "unknown" instrument, especially in a solo
context, bearing in mind the remarkable but isolated contributions of such players
as Anthony Braxton and Peter van Bergen. Much of the material evolved out of
extensive consultations with Carl Rosman, some of whose other abilities suggested
the "prosthetic" extension of the instrument using the player's voice
(with a range of four and a half octaves) and a pedal bass drum. Central to
my intentions was to discover or develop a "virtuosity" inherent to
the instrument and then extrapolate it to an almost (?) absurd extreme.
The Latin text of the vocal part is from Lucretius' poem De rerum natura ("On
the nature of things"), and describes the sudden and violent destruction
of the world, though under what circumstances and for what reasons is unclear,
since the crucial lines before the chosen fragment have been lost.
Interference was begun in 1996 and completed in February 2000, commissioned
by ELISION, and is dedicated to Carl Rosman.