Carter Fragment by gregcaffrey

Carter Fragment – For Solo Bb Clarinet – Composed in Paris July 2011

This composition takes as its starting point a small fragment (just 3 notes) from the Elliott Carter solo clarinet piece “Gra” meaning “Game” in Polish (incidentally “Gra” also means “Love” in the Irish language – this composer’s nationality, although I’m sure Elliott Carter was unaware of this).

Gra was performed for me by the clarinetist Merve Kasokoglu at the Cité Internationale des Arts, Paris and I was struck by the contour and beauty of the fragment concerned, which occurs about a third of the way through the piece. The two intervals that characterize this 3-note fragment are striking. The first is an upward leap of two octaves and a tritone and the second a downward leap of a minor ninth. The motive therefore uses a significant part of the Bb clarinet’s range from a (written) B in the chalumeau register to an F in the altissimo register.

The working out of this motive in my own composition sees the idea transformed, often through octave displacement, but more importantly, because of Carters own rhythmic preoccupations, through the use of a series of metric modulations, which allow very precise control of the tempi throughout the piece.

Greg Caffrey 2011.