Some Potential Ramifications
For Unaccompanied Bass Clarinet
By Craig Thomas Naylor
Performance Guidelines
Some Potential Ramifications alternates in feel from timeless and
mysterious to raucous, jazzy and playful. The opening to measure
34 should have a floating quality, of awaiting possibility. Minor
thirds should be emphasized so the major third in measure 33 – 34 acts
and feels as a resolution.
Measure 35 begins a bluesy section, with driving rhythms. The
eighths are equal in length, not syncopated: the - . phrasing will
provide plenty of drive. This section should have the feeling of
play, of exploring different ideas, of brainstorming - and enjoying
every moment of this journey. The tremolos provide occasional
respite, a moment of pause for reflection, then right back into the
driving bluesy rhythms. A meditative section at measure 105,
recapping material from the first section, reaches an epitome of
expansion in measure 118 with multiphonics. Interspersed with
additional tremolos, with occasional dissonant multiphonics giving a
brief sense of anguish, this section resolves with an open fifth
multiphonic in measures 125, 127. A tremolo on a tritone begins
motion forward again.
The last section drives to the end – ideas explored, great flights of
joy and abandon - all propelling to the conclusion.
Melodically, this work should always be in a singing fashion, always as
if it is a tune that will be hummed on the way home. Major
sevenths should be treated as the joyous squeal of a child at play,
leaping with ebullient energy, not pedantic and dissonant.
Multiphonics are often idiomatic to a particular instrument. If
the written ones do not speak for your instrument, feel free to
substitute with ones that have the following characteristics:
m. 118 – prominent major seventh interval(s) – dissonant.
m. 120 – a third – minor preferred (octave transposition – tenth is
fine) – consonant to somewhat consonant.
m. 123 – major third (octave transposition OK) - somewhat consonant.
m. 124 – tenth, seventeenth but with dissonant internal intervals.
m. 125, 127 – perfect fifth or octave, open and consonant.
Enjoy!
Craig Thomas Naylor
Fredericksburg, Virginia
September 7, 2004