Beth Fleenor, clarinet; Jenny Ziefel, bass clarinet; Paul Hoskin, contrabass clarinet; Carol Levin & Monica Schley, harp.
An initial meeting. It may be the first performance of a clarinet/harp quintet. Anywhere, anytime. One may imagine it as reeds meets strings, yet… “Most instruments produce harmonic sounds, but many instruments produce partials and inharmonic tones.” The tone colors that will be explored may be without reference to standard concepts of pitch…perhaps even without reference to what is thought of as “beautiful.” The five members of the quintet come from drastically different backgrounds. Classically trained, jazz schooled, refusal for any of… Yet, the common devotion is to one of spontaneously composed sonic creations. What we play on a given evening displays an understanding of music in all of its depths and surfaces. “Out of silence erupts melody, rhythm, noise in immediate permutations and configurations.”