Contraforte Solo Lorelei Dowling: Pigeonholed (Leah Muir)

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My doctoral project, Developing the Contraforte for Twenty-first-century Ensemble Playing involves the contraforte and the creation of new musical compositions from myself and various composers. The contraforte is a relatively new instrument, developed in 2001 by the instrument maker Guntram Wolf. Like a contrabassoon, the contraforte is designed to have a more powerful, resonant sound and greater range. I collaborated with Liza Lim, Georges Aperghis, Georg Friedrich Haas, Leah Muir and Alberto Posadas, who contributed significantly to contemporary music. The six pieces highlight composers' sonic perceptions and thoughts when working with a new instrument and employ extended techniques and sounds derived from my study. The general goal is to move this instrument towards future explorations of more diverse and homogenous sounds in new music and therefore have a more prominent role in ensemble compositions.
Australian bassoonist Lorelei Dowling is a world-renowned contemporary specialist. She has been a member of Klangforum Wien, Vienna, Austria for over two decades. Lorelei Dowling has given lecture recitals all over the world, most notably at the Manhattan School of Music, Moscow Conservatorium, Singapore University, Venice Conservatoire, Paris Conservatoire, Hong Kong bassoon society, Vietnam National Academy of Music, Royal Northern College of Music and for the International Double Reed Society in Ithaca, Wisconsin, Birmingham and Bangkok. In addition to being the first bassoonist to play the Jolivet Bassoon Concerto with a major Australian orchestra, she premiered Berio’s Sequenza XII for solo bassoon in Spain, Singapore, Hong Kong and Russia. She has premiered new bassoon solo works from Pierluigi Billone, George Aperghis, Georg Friederich Haas, Liza Lim, Alberto Posadas, Mark Andre and Johannes Maria Staud and as a soloist has recorded for Kairos, Wergo, ABC Classics, and TYX Art.
PIGEONHOLED for solo contraforte with spoken text: Leah Muir.
This 10-minute piece for solo contraforte and spoken text, based on Stephen Hawking's ‘A Brief History of Time’, combines classical playing and unusual contraforte sounds that represent time. From nine short episodes, three are named describing time: I Contrapuntally, III Backwards and Forwards and IX Ultra-particulate. The spoken text is organised as follows:
II Does dark matter effect time? (Spoken freely)
III Can you stop time? With enough gravity? (Spoken softly) If the universe contracts does time go in reverse? (Spoken loudly)
V Can you bend the speed of time? (Spoken inquisitively)
VI Does time have weightiness whereas weight starts to tick? (Spoken punchily)
VII Can an entity make time expand and contract?
VIII Particle or wave Why not both?
IX If there are particles of gravity, why not particles of time? (Spoken freely)
Range used for the contraforte: written A1 to C6.
Timestamps (highlight: contraforte glissandi section: 4:38 + 7:35) are used to pinpoint unusual contraforte sounds such as regular sounds intermingled with distortion caused by teeth being placed intermittently on the reed., various vibratos, overblowing with bisbigliando, growling while playing, long register glissandi and air sounds interrupted by vowels and key openings.
00:00 Title
00:08 I CONTRAPUNTALLY (bar 1)
00:20 Contraforte B1 played with teeth(bar 3)
00:30 Contraforte D#5 vibrato + teeth(bar 6)
00:38 Contraforte B5-Bb-C6 melody(bar 8)
01:19 Contraforte D5 -vibrato variations(bar 14)
01:30 Contraforte C5 played with teeth(bar 16)
01:45 II Contraforte C2 overblown-normal + bisbigliando(bar 19)
02:33 III BACKWARDS FORWARDS(bar 26)
03:27 Contraforte agile melody + growling(bar 42)
04:02 IV Contraforte F4 with lip + teeth=distortion(bar 47)
04:38 V Contraforte F3-C3 glissando(bar 52)
04:48 Contraforte E3-D4 glissando(bar 53)
05:00 ContraforteF4-A3 glissando(bar 55)
05:13 Contraforte Eb4-A5 glissando(bar 56)
05:25 Contraforte B5-D5 glissando(bar 58)
05:38 Contraforte Db5-A4 glissando(bar 59)
05:48 Contraforte C6-vibrato variations(bar 60)
06:02 Contraforte Cb5 -teeth + voice(bar 62)
06:06 Contraforte C6-vibrato variations(bar 64)
06:28 VI Contraforte melody + slurring/ growling(bar 66)
07:08 VII (bar 76)
07:35 Contraforte Gb4-B4 / F4-D5 glissando(bars 86-88)
07:50 Contraforte F5-E5 glissando(bar 91)
08:45 VIII Particle or wave(bar 102)
08:47 Contraforte F#2 manipulated with teeth/lips/bisbigliando(bar 103)
09:03 Contraforte D2 manipulated with teeth/lips/bisbigliando(bar 105)
09:13 IX ULTRA-PARTICULATE
09:24 Contraforte F5 non-legato agile melody representing particles(bar 108)
09:29 Contraforte Cb6 non-legato agile melody representing particles(bar 109)
10:14 Contraforte A1-Gb5 non-legato agile melody representing particles(bar 116)
10:34 X Contraforte A1 only air + bisbigliando(bar 121)