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James Williamson’s Fault-Klang for solo bass clarinet

James Williamson’s Fault-Klang for solo bass clarinet will be performed by Psappha ensemble in their 2017/2018 concert season. (Link and details below).
 
Fault-Klang was written as part of Psappha’s “writing for…” scheme in 2016, in collaboration with clarinetist Dov Goldberg.
 
Programme note: The narrative of Fault-Klang is centred around two concepts. Firstly, when thinking about what I might write on this scheme, I felt it would be hard not to grasp at the opportunity to really immerse myself within the instrument and explore some of its fruits. Therefore, I’ve written a piece that explores various extended techniques, of which I hadn’t tried before. This, in turn, made me think about the German word ‘klang’ and its philosophy. ‘Klang’ translates to English as ‘sound’ or perhaps more specifically ‘timbre’, which sums up the sound world of the piece. Secondly, ‘Fault’ which forms the first part of the title came to fruition within the last few bars. Geologically, a fault is a fracture in a volume of rock formed as a result of mass movement. The energy released in the movement is often the cause of earthquakes. I felt the idea of an accumulation of energies culminating with a sense of release (or eruption) is, for me, what the journey of this piece conveys.

See the film recording of the piece here:
For tickets and info about Psappha’s 2017/2018 season go here:

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