chiara percivati

Totem

By

Luca Valli – “Totem” (2019)
for amplified Prepared Bass Clarinet

Our work together, as explained by Luca himself.

“Totem was born thanks to the collaboration with Chiara, originating from our research on instrumental preparation with aluminium foil.
In particular, I was interested in the exploration of the apparent dichotomy between aluminium sound and clarinet sound (see the paragraph “Blending aluminium with clarinet sound”) and in its reconcilement.
I chose as a starting point a multiphonic with very stable partials which isn’t influenced by this specific preparation. The rest of the musical materials descended from it through progressive modifications, working on slightly different fingering configurations, embouchure

flexibility, articulation and the use of voice.
The whole piece is then built around this first multiphonic: from here comes the title Totem, to be interpreted as a fixed point around which events happen and that, at the same time, is influenced and progressively modified by what surrounds it. Throughout the piece, this progressive modifications lead us from the stable sounds of the beginning to the distorted aluminium rattles of the last section. We explore the gap between these two opposites, trying to bridge it, progressively distorting the first material and embedding the second one.

This “sonic movement” happens in two different ways: on the one hand, as just mentioned, through the acoustic development of the materials; on the other, it happens through a specific setup and work on amplification. Both for sample recording and for live performances we used two super-cardioid microphones (DPA-4099), that thanks to their excellent isolation of the sound source provide an extremely clean result.

Both microphones are fixed directly to the clarinet body: the first one is tied to the upper part of the instrument, pointing towards the left hand; the second one is fixed to the bell, pointing towards the centre of the aluminium foil. 

Fastening the mics directly to the instrument allows us to control the amplification levels with automation – using Max/MSP – and guarantees a level of precision and balance otherwise impossible. For this purpose I used the Bach library developed by Andrea Agostini e Daniele Ghisi, that made managing technical issues and working on the creative process at the same time much easier.
https://www.bachproject.net/

The tape part is exclusively made out of prepared instrument samples, using the same mic setup and without any kind of signal processing (indeed, there is a “beta version” of the piece for 4 amplified prepared Bass Clarinets – each with 2 mics controlled by live electronics – and without tape). 

A fragment from the automation score, showing a synthetic version of the four clarinet parts and the automation lines for the mic levels.

The aim of this setup – with double mic and automation – is not only to bring the listener very close to the sound source but, above all, to lead his ear along the body of the instrument, driving him into an otherwise inaccessible journey.  

In the following samples, we can hear how the instrumental timbre changes as we capture the sound with one microphone or the other.

1. The sound captured by the first mic, close to the keys of the upper part of the instrument
2. The sound captured by the second mic, close to the aluminium foil 

Another passage in 3 different takes:

1. first mic, close to the keys
2. second mic, close to the aluminium foil
3. final mix of the two microphones

This is the original take (1 mic for each channel and same gain for both mics) of a pitch played as a harmonic of two different fundamentals. Changing fingering, the sound literally moves from the upper part of the instrument (top panel – Left channel) to the bell (lower panel – Right channel), additionally triggering the aluminium rattle.

Another example, with the same sound movement in a more complex excerpt.

These examples show not only how much the sound quality changes depending on the position of the microphone but, above all, how sound source moves across the instrument body.

For now, we decided to flatten this movement, presenting a mono-spatial version of the piece. Nevertheless, we are working on a new audio version of the piece, with the aim to valorize the instrument inner spatial dynamism.”

Bubbling bell

By

During a working session with Luca Valli on his piece, Totem, for bass clarinet and tin foil preparation, we decided to prepare the bass clarinet’s bell with water. I had seen many brass players doing this, storing water into the bell or immersing their instruments into buckets of water and then blowing them, but had never tried it on the clarinet because of its wooden body. In this case, since the bass’ bell is made of metal, there is no danger for the instrument.

We first sealed the vent hole with patafix, wrapped up the low C pad (the one on the lower part of the bell that you can see in the picture) with cellophane, to isolate it from water (they are waterproof, but it’s safer anyway), closed the low C key (otherwise, water would run out of it) and finally poured approximately a glass of water into the bell.

The result was an interesting blend of low and bubbling sounds, with a strong and yet unpredictable percussive element, caused by the ‘boiling’ water. Just imagine blowing into a one meter straw! When I tried to play louder, harmonics emerged from this low magma.

This preparation was the starting point for further preparations (after all, isn’t it the same with complex acoustic sounds, that are often the result of an overlapping of techniques?).

These are the sounds we experimented with:

00:00, water only; harmonics emerge as dynamic raises.

00:16, boomwhacker (tuned percussion tube) into the bass’ bell; harmonics emerge.
We first added a boomwhacker pipe into the prepared bell, to get a lower and less defined sound, and obtained similar results but with a deeper and darker fundamental (I personally like this sound a lot, though it needs lots of air).


00:48, aluminium foil; harmonics; pp aluminium solo-buzz.
Again without the boomwhacker, we covered the watery bell with aluminium foil. The new preparation adds a rattle, delicate or intense, depending on the airflow’s energy, to the bubbling and the harmonics. As you can hear in the audio recording, more sounds are possible with the combination of these preparations: breathing in and out, sipping sounds, extremely delicate buzz of the aluminium foil.

01:25, didjeridoo embouchure.
Finally, we removed the mouthpiece and tried to use this last preparation (water and aluminium foil) with a didjeridoo embouchure. The result is pretty fun, quite far from the sounds we started from. Hilarious and expressive at the same time.

Rattling clarinet

By

When I first tried to prepare my bass clarinet’s bell with aluminium foil I thought that only the lowest note(s) would be affected. Instead, a long series of notes from the lowest, middle and upper register are involved, making this preparation much more interesting than I expected.

In this post I will discuss aluminium foil over the bell of a bass clarinet, but as you can imagine this preparation can be placed over every open hole and on every clarinet. Try it out!

First of all, I wrapped the bell’s opening with aluminium foil. You don’t need to tape it up, just fold the foil and it will easily adhere to the bell.

Aluminium foil ‘sounds’ when the air column that vibrates inside the instrument is long enough to radiate its energy all the way to the tin membrane. This happens, for instance, when the holes are all closed (written low C, sounding Bb a major ninth below) or almost entirely closed (written low C#).

Low C:

Low C#:

If we play a C# and a C with the same intensity, aluminium foil will be less present in the C# than in the C, because part of the vibration radiates through the C#’s only open hole before reaching the foil, so that the aluminium solicitation is weaker. Nevertheless, the rattle is audible…and usable! Opening another hole or more, for instance playing a D, will prevent any aluminium rattle (vibration radiates through the open holes before reaching the foil).

If we close all the holes (as if playing our low C) and then open one or two top holes (with thumb or index finger of the left hand), more rattling sounds are possible, in the range G-Bb (see the picture, sounding one ninth below written). In this case, the aluminium foil rattles because the bore is “somehow” closed until the bell (all the bottom holes are closed and just one or two top-holes/on top are open). The same notes (G-Bb) can of course be played with their ‘ordinary’ fingerings as well, and in this case, since the fingerings have open holes in the upper and lower part of the instrument, these pitches will sound without the rattle. In the audios I alternate the “closed” (with aluminium sound) and “open” (ordinary sound) positions.

G:

G quarter tone higher:

G#:

A:

Bb:

Harmonics
All these fundamentals (C², C#², G³-Bb³) have natural harmonics which follow the ordinary clarinet/closed pipes sequence, with odd harmonics only. So, for instance, the low C has, as first harmonics, G, E, Bb, D…and so on. When playing these notes as harmonics of C, fingering the low fundamental (in this case C) and adjusting air flow and embouchure to get the upper partials, these harmonics will rattle as well (because the bore is closed until the bottom). These notes, as for the G³-Bb³ with closed fingering, can also be played with their “ordinary” fingerings, as harmonics of other “shorter” fundamentals, that having open holes before the end of the instrument will not make the aluminium rattle. In the audios I alternate these rattling and ordinary sounds.

Summing up, aluminium foil preparation on bass clarinet’s bell affects: C², C#² and closed positions for G³, G³ quarter tone, G#³, A³, Bb³ and all their harmonics (so it’s actually a lot of different pitches!).

Multiphonics
“Tinning” spectral multiphonics are possible on all the found positions.

Aluminium only
Aluminium foil sounds even just breathing in and out (without making the reed vibrate), because the membrane is pushed forward and sucked in by the air flow.

Blending aluminium with clarinet’s sound
The two sound sources, clarinet and aluminium foil, sound a bit “separated”: clarinet’s sound is smooth and harmonic, aluminium foil, on the contrary, is extremely inharmonic. So, when we listen to their combined sound, we still hear their superposition rather than their blending.

I tried to use flutter-tongue or/and voice, to make the clarinet’s sound more inharmonic and so helping a bit their meld.
Flutter-tongue on low C:

Different combinations of sound, voice, flutter-tonguing and rattling aluminium.

All dynamics are possible, aluminium loudness increases (up to a certain level) and decreases following the clarinet’s intensity. Articulation works as with ordinary sound. All kinds of staccato, flutter-tonguing, slaps and other different articulations are possible.

I would like to try some humming/singing/talking sounds with and without mouthpiece, think it could be interesting.

Recent Posts