Pleistocene Epoch: the Great Ice Age | Jenni Brandon Bass Clarinet

JB 121 Pleistocene Epoch: The Great Ice Age | Jenni Brandon Bass Clarinet

PLEISTOCENE EPOCH: THE GREAT ICE AGE

FOR SOLO BASS CLARINET

MUSIC BY JENNI BRANDON

Program Note Jenni Brandon (b. 1977) is an award‐ winning composer. Many ensembles This piece for solo bass clarinet takes perform her commissioned music its inspiration from the La Brea both nationally and internationally. Tarpits located in Los Angeles, She enjoys engaging with performers California. It tells the story of the and audiences, often appearing as a animals that are constantly being dug composer in residence or giving talks out of the asphalt, or the pits, that about the business of music and the lived during the Pleistocene Epoch, or art of collaboration. As a conductor, the great ice age, over 10,000 years she has led both church and ago. community choirs and she makes guest appearances to conduct her The bass clarinet gurgles and oozes works. during “Asphalt,” revealing the musical motives of the extinct Recordings of her works appear on animals that we will meet during the the Delos, Albany, Centaur, MSR piece. The Saber‐toothed Cat stalks Classics, and Longhorn labels. Her its prey, sneaking along the ground CD, Songs of California: Music for on the attack. The “Mammuthus Winds and Piano, was nominated for Columbi” or the Columbian the 10th Independent Music Awards. Mammoth was a huge creature with Jenni is the recipient of numerous enormous tusks; a gentle giant that other awards including the Sorel might find itself stuck in the asphalt, Medallion, the American Prize for leaving it open to attack by dire Choral Composition, the Women wolves. These wolves, which hunted Composers Festival of Hartford in packs, are the most frequently International Composition found inhabitants in the La Brea Competition, and the Bassoon Tarpits, and their multiphonic battle Chamber Music Composition cry leads them into the hunt. By the Competition. She is published by end of the movement, they, too, Boosey & Hawkes, Imagine, Graphite, have become immersed in the muck, TrevCo, Santa Barbara Music sinking back down into the asphalt to Publishing, and Jenni Brandon Music. be discovered 10,000 years later. Visit www.jennibrandon.com.

Each of the animals went extinct at the end of the Pleistocene Epoch, but their stories are preserved in the asphalt and told here by the gurgles and oozing of the bass clarinet. For Jennifer Stevenson of the Vientos Trio PLEISTOCENE EPOCH: THE GREAT ICE AGE SOLO BASS CLARINET

I. ASPHALT JENNI BRANDON

Gurgling up from the depths accel. rit. humming - fluctuate in and out of tune Voice     pp cresc. Bass Clarinet   in Bb         n mf n pp cresc. f

3 accel. rit. Voice       pp cresc.             n  mf n pp 

Freely, a bubble surfaces 5 steadier tempo, but still slow and sticky 6                              p  p mf  mp

10 6 6 5                    pp mp p    

14 tentative at first poco a poco accel. 3333                               poco a poco cresc.   Copyright © 2009 Jenni Brandon www.jennibrandon.com Cenozoic Era, Holocene Epoch 2 I. Asphalt

q=72 16 5                         f

19 rit.                    p cresc.          f   Oozing... accel. 25 rit. slowing   Voice  mf mp         mp   mf       

27 Slowly continue to blow air, unpitched               p n

29 Key Clicks (suggested shape and motion)                        

pp pp 2:25 3 II. SMILODON FATALIS: SABERTOOTHED CAT q=110 Stalking detached and steady, sneaky                    pp

5 poco a poco accel.

                 pp p pp p

a tempo 9 Slowing legato, purring                       mp     p 

13 detached                              p  p  mp 

q=120 18 accel. Faster, more intense                          p     mp    mf q=144 22 accel. The prey in site...

                                     cresc. f

26                                        cresc. 4 II. Smilodon Fatalis: Sabertoothed Cat

pounce and attack, freely 31                                  ff  

35 q=152                                     sub. p cresc. mp cresc.

40 q=132    detached                       ff        f

                   mp p pp 1:30 5 III. MAMMUTHUS COLUMBI: COLUMBIAN MAMMOTH

q=80 Majestic and grand, lyrical poco a poco accel.                        f   mf        molto rit. a tempo mf 8 più mosso                              f dim.  mp   13 poco a poco accel.                                 poco a poco cresc.   Freely 18                        3  ff  

20 a tempo molto rit. ghostly                        p mf  dim.  q=100 Cautious, more alert 24                            3     3 3 3

32 3                            p 40                                  p 3 3 3 3 3 3 Panic, stuck in the asphalt attacca 46 poco a poco accel.                         poco a poco cresc. 2:00

6 IV. CANIS DIRUS: DIRE WOLF

q=152 Like a battle cry The hunt and the attack *    e=e                f            

                                      10                              

                                         mp   18                                         mf mf mp cresc. 22                                               f mf poco a poco cresc. 26 *                                             poco a poco decresc.    f      32                                     p            *May be played out of tempo, but the effect should be that of a battle call IV. Canis Dirus: Dire Wolf 7

37                             ff       cresc. 40                                         sub. p   mp Slowing 44                                        cresc.  cresc.         mf       ff

49 molto rit.   sticky                     f          

Freely, into the asphalt... 53

Voice      f mf                n mf dim. n

55 slowly Continue to blow air, unpitched             p  n

57 Key Clicks                        

pp pp 1:45