Derek Bermel: Intonations: Music for Clarinet and Strings (CD Review)

By Karl Nehring

Intonations; Ritornello (version for electric guitar and string quartet); Thracian Sketches; Violin Etudes; A Short History of the Universe (as related by Nima Arkani-Hamed). Derek Bermel, clarinet; JACK Quartet (Christopher Otto [Intonations], Austin Wulliman, Ari Steisfeld, violins; John Pickford Richards, viola; Jay Campbell [Intonations], Kevin McFarland, cello; Wiek Hijmans, electric guitar. Naxos 8.559912

The American composer and clarinetist Derek Bermel (b. 1967) has an active interest in and engagement with various styles of music from around the globe. As the liner notes point out, the compositions included in this album “draw on Bermel’s kaleidoscopically varied background as both composer and performer: studies under the great French modernist Henri Dutilleux, the Dutch avant-gardist Louis Andriessen, and the American ragtime revivalist William Bolcom; travels to learn Thracian folk music in Bulgaria, the Lobi xylophone in Ghana, and the caxixi in Brazil; and collaborations with musicians ranging Wynton Marsalis and Stephen Sondheim to the rapper Yaslin Bey (Mos Def).”

Not all of the chamber music pieces included are for clarinet and strings, as the subtitle on the cover might lead you to believe. The opening Intonations, for example, is a string quartet in three movements – music that is intense, even boisterous at times, but not in an esoteric way. The more you listen, the more the music may become more familiar-sounding, especially for those listeners who are well-steeped in the blues. Ritornello for clarinet and string quartet is less overtly intense, more openly melodic; indeed, it is revealing to hear just how well the electric guitar blends in with the sound of the string quartet – not that it’s Hendrix v. Haydn. If anything, the piece has something of a Baroque feel to it, as though it were composed by a twenty-first century Vivaldi.

The next two compositions are both for solo instruments: Thracian Sketches is performed by Bermel on the clarinet. It is music with a hypnotic, haunting quality that gathers energy and momentum as it continues along, becoming downright fierce in some passages. It is an exciting, involving piece, and to have the composer himself playing it certainly marks this performance with the stamp of authenticity. Violin Etudes is in five relatively short movements, each different in character, each requiring to violinist to apply a different approach to playing the instrument, showcasing the sonorities of which the instrument is capable of producing. Although my admittedly clumsy description might make the piece sound dry or even forbidding, it is actually quite entertaining, with each short movement making a unique musical statement. 

What some listeners may find forbidding, however, at least from its title, is the final piece on the program, A Short History of the Universe (as related by Nima Arkani-Hamed). As a bit of quick background, Bermel served as an artist-in residence at the prestigious Institute for Advanced Study (IAS) in Princeton, NJ (press release here), past home to geniuses such as Albert Einstein and Kurt Gödel and current home to intellectual luminaries such as Dr. Nima Arkani-Hamed (webpage here), one of the world’s leading physicists and cosmologists, whom Bermel heard  lecture during his time at IAS and was inspired to write this piece for clarinet and string quartet. It's not nearly as big as the universe, nor does it last nearly as long, but it’s an entertaining listen nonetheless, with some fascinating harmonies that suggest the mystery and wonder of the universe that somehow produced us – and this very music to boot.

The liner notes, although relatively brief, are helpfully informative, and the sound quality is clean and clear. Once again, it has been fun and rewarding to discover the music of a previously unknown (at least to me) composer. If you enjoy exploring music a bit off the beaten path, or if you perhaps like me you have a soft spot for the sound of the clarinet, then this is a release well worth seeking out.