Sound Directions

Tonight at 8 p.m. at the Metro Gallery, the Contemporary Museum’s Mobtown Modern music series presents High Art, featuring compositions by Philip Glass, Brian Ferneyhough, Kaija Saariaho, Jason Eckardt, and Pierre Boulez and the amazing talents of flutists Katayoon Hodjati and Marcia Kämper (from the Baltimore Symphony) and clarinetist Jennifer Everhart. One of the works on the program, Pierre Boulez’s Dialogue du l’ombre double is so fiendishly difficult and requires such an incredible amount of work to stage, that it is rarely performed. I asked Mobtown Modern’s fearless clarinetist Jennifer Everhart to tell me a little more about the piece and the process of preparing such a daunting work for performance. Here’s what she had to say.

Brian Sacawa: Tell me a little bit about Boulez’s Dialogue du l’ombre double.

Jennifer Everhart: The title of the work translates to “Dialogue of the Double Shadow” and is inspired by a scene from “The Satin Slipper,” a play by French author Paul Claudel. In the scene, a double shadow of a man and woman embracing is projected on the stage and treated as a single character. The basic idea is that I am interacting with a shadow of myself. There are seven pre-recorded movements: An initial ‘sigle,’ followed by 5 transitions and then closing with the ‘sigle’ final. In between each of these is a live performance of six Strophes, with each movement dove-tailing to the next, very much like a conversation. By the way, the work was composed for the 1985 celebration of Luciano Berio’s 60th birthday.

BS: This piece is rarely performed. Why?

JE: Not only does the actual performance of the work require insane amounts of technical ability and flexibility but simply compiling all the components in the correct way takes tons of time and access to a fair amount of equipment. There is an entire booklet of detailed instructions that just apply to the recorded sections. The performance calls for 6 speakers that operate in surround sound and an additional speaker placed at a distance. Also, Boulez’s instructions call for a mic on a piano in the hall to capture the natural reverberations and then mix them with the live clarinet sound. All of this creates a unique aural experience.

BS: Is this the hardest thing you’ve ever played?

JE: Absolutely.

BS: One of the cool things about a performance of this work is that it uses a 6-speaker surround sound system. What’s actually played back through the speakers and how are the surround sound effects created?

JE: As I mentioned before, the speakers project the seven pre-recorded movements. Each movement had specific instructions on how to mic the clarinet and the exact amount of reverb to use. I used a combination of a close mic and a distant mic, each distance was given in meters by Boulez. The surround sound effect is created by sending different sections of a given movement to a different speaker. The score has several markings which indicate the speaker and volume level of a section of music. My brilliant and patient husband was able to sift through the score and make all the necessary edits.

BS: In meters?! It sounds like Boulez has some very exact instructions for how the piece is to be interpreted. How does that effect your performance?

JE: He is indeed incredibly specific on how to perform the work. However, this performance will be from my viewpoint, guided by the instructions Boulez gives, but providing my own interpretation. I see the instructions as a framework that I can use to build my own conversation (with myself), so to speak.

BS: How are the pre-recorded sounds triggered during a live performance?

JE: For this performance, the pre-recorded sounds are triggered by the audio engineer, aka my hubbie Matthew. He follows a score and simply starts the track at the given time and I also follow the score to make my solo entrances. Another component to the performance is that my sound is also amplified and for a few of the movements, the reverb is adjusted while I play, which Matthew also controls from the mixing board.

BS: So does your husband helping to make the pre-recorded part and triggering it in performance make him immune to punishment from, you know, like leaving piles of clothes around the house?

JE: I guess I could let him slide on a few things!

BS: What do you plan on having to drink after you perform this piece tonight?

JE: Dirty Martini. Heavy on the olives.

You can get to know Jennifer a little better via this video podcast:

And have a listen to Jennifer’s performance of Michael Lowenstern’s Ten Children from Mobtown Modern’s Low Art show this past October:

Clarinetist Jennifer Everhart and flutist Katayoon Hodjati perform works by Boulez, Glass, Ferneyhough, Saariaho, and Eckardt on the Contemporary Museum’s Mobtown Modern music series tonight at 8 p.m. at the Metro Gallery (1700 North Charles Street) in Baltimore’s Station North Arts District. Tickets are sold at the door and are $10 general admission and $5 for museum members and students with a valid ID. Visit www.mobtownmodern.com to preview music from this concert and to learn about more upcoming Mobtown Modern events.