Hubert Howe

Bass Clarinet or Tenor Saxophone and Fixed Media

Composer's Note:

In recent works, I have explored different ways of structuring inharmonic partials of a sound. This work employs frequency shifting so that each partial above the fundamental is 13/24 of that of a harmonic spectrum. The amplitude of each partial is controlled separately, so that there is a continually shifting timbre. The bass clarinet represents a fixed element over this continually changing backdrop of sound components fading in or out. In the middle part of the piece, the inharmonic components change from continually fading in and out (marked "1" in the score) to being attacked individually (marked "2"), and the instrument contributes to these little points of sound that drop in and out. The score shows only the "fundamental" tones above which the frequency-shifted components fade in and out; it does not show those components. The work was written in the winter of 2020-21 during the coronavirus pandemic, and the fixed media part was generated by Csound.