Luís Carvalho » EPHEMERA

Efémera
for instrumental duet: clarinet & percussion [1 player]

composition date: 1994
duration: ca. 7:00 min.
dedication: to my friend Jorge Madureira
premiere: ??/05/1994 | Porto Conservatory of Music (Luís Carvalho – clarinet | Jorge Madureira – percussion)

Ephemera, for clarinet and multi-percussionist duo, dates from 1994 and is one of the first compositions I consider consistent, representing my first attempt at writing experimental music. In it, I sought to apply some of the extended clarinet techniques that, as a clarinetist myself, I had recently begun to learn—such as multiphonics, frullato (flutter-tonguing), etc. Regarding the musical discourse, I explored the post-serialist aesthetic, which was also a novelty for me then. The work navigates through several short, contrasting motifs, presented consecutively in a sort of conversation between the clarinetist and the percussionist, culminating in a large, semi-improvisational coda-like section. In this section, the clarinet plays a long melodic line in a continuous crescendo and accelerando, to which the percussionist responds randomly with short interjections of motifs taken from previous sections. This is the climax of the work, leading to a peak of almost wild sonic intensity, in which virtually all percussion instruments are utilized. The piece concludes with a varied restatement of the initial, slow, and meditative thematic material, but presented here in reverse order.

The title Ephemera derives from the name of an insect order whose members live from just a few hours to a day at most. This brevity applies to my own piece, which is relatively short and condensed.

While this work is not entirely representative of the creative catalog I have built since then, I do not disown it either, as I consider it an important step in my artistic evolution and in the consolidation of my musical language as a composer. Art is made of continuous experiences that open up always new and challenging paths in the pursuit of a meaningful artistic and creative message. As with all my other works, that was the spirit when I created this Ephemera.