D a v i d   V e s s

Livewire is a concerto for bass clarinet and chamber orchestra written for my dear friend, David Mitchell-Angelo. It is a wildly difficult piece that I threw at him while preparing for doctoral degree applications. The work is currently still under construction, though we recorded the first movement in a reading session with fantastic players at the Boston Conservatory. The work imagines the awakening of a machine personified by the bass clarinet. I’ve always had a love for this wild instrument -its strange sonority always brings me back to my days playing rock and metal in cover bands. The work is Three movements: I. escape II. machine graveyard III. infernal contraption The entire work is built on short 5 note motif, first presented jaggedly as an additive passacaglia that abruptly opens the piece. The motif takes a more melodic form when it bursts forth in the brass. The bass clarinet plays many roles, starting the piece like a a great machine waking from thousand year slumber and then leaping into a twitchy, bouncy bass rhythm that recurs throughout the work. The soloist juggles many unusual techniques, from singing chant-like phrases in 5ths to aleatoric rhythmic passages. It has been a joy to write this for David, I couldn't have asked for a better collaborator.