# Stream for Clarinet in Bb & live electronics



## pkoi (Jun 10, 2017)

Here's a small solo piece for clarinet in Bb & a simple reverb pedal I wrote this summer. I've been wanting to create something with live electronics for quite some time. I've previously composed pieces using fixed media and one work that's fully electronic but this is my first one in the live electronic medium. Since it's my first piece utilising live electronics, I decided to create something rather simple. In the piece the clarinetist uses a sustain pedal that's connected to my pure data-patch via sustain pedal-to-midi-adapter. The pure data patch creates long shimmering reverb from the input. This could be done easily also with any commercial reverb 1st or a hardware unit. However, I choose to create the patch in pd, so that anyone with a clarinet, sustain pedal & microphone could potentially try this piece.

The name of the piece comes from the allusion I had when writing the piece. I felt that the pitch material of the piece is a kind of stream of something, and when the reverb patch is turned on, something from the stream 'spills over'.

I hope you like it!


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## mikeh375 (Sep 7, 2017)

I love this. Ever since I first heard Messiaen's '4tet For the End of Time' I've appreciated how powerfully expressive a solo clarinet can be and this has a similar effect. I like the reverb trickery too as it is judicious and certainly not overdone. There's always a danger one could get carried away with the reverb sustain and create a cacophony but not here. I like it when at b40 and b62, the reverb catches more than just one sustained note, very effective.

Inevitably Boulez's 'Dialogue de l'ombre double'springs to mind but only in a superficial way. Having a lot of experience with a DAW, plug-ins and reverb and knowing how tweakable their parameters are, methinks this is very fertile ground Pekka. Let me tempt you further down the bunny hole..... 

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## pkoi (Jun 10, 2017)

mikeh375 said:


> I love this. Ever since I first heard Messiaen's '4tet For the End of Time' I've appreciated how powerfully expressive a solo clarinet can be and this has a similar effect. I like the reverb trickery too as it is judicious and certainly not overdone. There's always a danger one could get carried away with the reverb sustain and create a cacophony but not here. I like it when at b40 and b62, the reverb catches more than just one sustained note, very effective.
> 
> Inevitably Boulez's 'Dialogue de l'ombre double'springs to mind but only in a superficial way. Having a lot of experience with a DAW, plug-ins and reverb and knowing how tweakable their parameters are, methinks this is very fertile ground Pekka. Let me tempt you further down the bunny hole.....
> 
> ...


Thank you very much Mike! I'm glad you like the piece 😊 I'm glad that you felt the reverb wasn't overused in the piece. I've often got that feeling when attending concerts featuring live electronics; the electronics then becomes a mere gimmick instead of providing something meaningful for the piece. One composer who uses electronics very well is Fausto Romitelli. In his works, such as in _an index of metals,_ the use of amplification, fixed media, ring modulators and other effects come very naturally and blend nicely into the sounds of the acoustic instruments. It's a pity he died so young and didn't leave much music for us to enjoy.

I think I'll be experimenting with a bit more complex electronic in the future with acoustic instruments. The world of electronic music production in itself is very familiar to me but in another context (in media music). I've also done a CCM-piece before with fixed media. This piece is a kind of quasi-piano concerto I composed back in 2016. The sound material is created with FM-synths (DX7 & Yamaha Reface DX) and some analogue synths.However, everything was pre-recorded and the pianist played to a click. Even though I'm happy how the piece turned out, I think the idea of playing this kind of expressive material to a click was a bit counter-intuitive and I probably will not write another piece like this.


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## mikeh375 (Sep 7, 2017)

pkoi said:


> Thank you very much Mike! I'm glad you like the piece 😊 I'm glad that you felt the reverb wasn't overused in the piece. I've often got that feeling when attending concerts featuring live electronics; the electronics then becomes a mere gimmick instead of providing something meaningful for the piece. One composer who uses electronics very well is Fausto Romitelli. In his works, such as in _an index of metals,_ the use of amplification, fixed media, ring modulators and other effects come very naturally and blend nicely into the sounds of the acoustic instruments. It's a pity he died so young and didn't leave much music for us to enjoy.
> 
> I think I'll be experimenting with a bit more complex electronic in the future with acoustic instruments. The world of electronic music production in itself is very familiar to me but in another context (in media music). I've also done a CCM-piece before with fixed media. This piece is a kind of quasi-piano concerto I composed back in 2016. The sound material is created with FM-synths (DX7 & Yamaha Reface DX) and some analogue synths.However, everything was pre-recorded and the pianist played to a click. Even though I'm happy how the piece turned out, I think the idea of playing this kind of expressive material to a click was a bit counter-intuitive and I probably will not write another piece like this.


Well 'Kajo' is a cool listen too - that's some piano part and well played too. Ther's no evidence of the tyranny of a click. Inevitably I suppose, given their nature, the synths will take on a pad like approach and a string harmonics type timbre at times but what I did like was when they got rhythmical and backed up the piano. Have you saved your presets to make them available as part of the score, although I suppose it'd be easier to just supply the backing and click track?

I should've listened to it with headphones on reflection. I'm guessing you are familiar with the recent DolbyAtmos developments for stereo headphones. I do believe surround sound listening for all will be another shot in the arm for mergers of the electronic and the live and something readily exploitable in a DAW as we know.


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## pkoi (Jun 10, 2017)

mikeh375 said:


> Well 'Kajo' is a cool listen too - that's some piano part and well played too. Ther's no evidence of the tyranny of a click. Inevitably I suppose, given their nature, the synths will take on a pad like approach and a string harmonics type timbre at times but what I did like was when they got rhythmical and backed up the piano. Have you saved your presets to make them available as part of the score, although I suppose it'd be easier to just supply the backing and click track?
> 
> I should've listened to it with headphones on reflection. I'm guessing you are familiar with the recent DolbyAtmos developments for stereo headphones. I do believe surround sound listening for all will be another shot in the arm for mergers of the electronic and the live and something readily exploitable in a DAW as we know.


Thanks! I'm happy with the piece and the player played it super nicely, and was able to "hide" the fact that it was played to a click. The player is specialised in this kind of music, and he is very experienced in playing with the metronome. However, I kept thinking after the piece's premiere how hard the piece in general is to perform for someone else than people very well versed in playing electro acoustic music, and how I could achieve similar results with either live electronics or live instruments, and how that would also give more freedom of interpretation for the players. I this sense I'm much happier with this clarinet piece; the player is in full command of the electronics and has a possibility to alter the lengths of notes etc. I might try this with an ensemble next.

If Kajo gets a reperformance someday, I would just supply the player with the 4.1. surround file I mixed the audio originally. Of course the score also exists, and if someone would really want to put in the effort, perhaps they could also recreate the electronics from scratch. As for the sounds themeselves; the glass-like FM sound heard often on the piece is actually a stock-preset from Yamaha DX reface, a 4OP FM synth. I also blended it with some similar sounds from the DX7. The preset on the DX7 I don't have anymore, I downloaded the classic stock presets to the instrument some years ago ( I mostly use it in my work as media composer - someone always wants that Top Gun-bell sound and I like the Marimba-presets as well) and removed everything else. The more rhythmical stuff was created with Korg Volca Bass & Volca Keys, simple analogue synths I used a lot at the time. Their sound I can recreate easily again.

I wish the performance was recorded in surround audio. As you say, the possibilities with spatial audio are amazing these days.


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