Blog Posts

Crossed Lines - 9. Intermezzo IV

2/7/2015

Dear Frieds,

This week I present you a new Intermezzo!
When we started to rehearse and to plan our intermezzos, one of the main ideas was to have a different plan / structure for each one, in order to connect the different pieces, but also create different environments and and sound landscapes. Either rhythmic or noisy, intense or relaxed ... with a lot of space to create and improvise, we knew "exactly" what was going to happen in each intermezzo, and how it should connect to the next piece.

I hope you can have as much fun as we had building up this project!
Stay tuned for the upcoming videos, and ...

Keep going .... really LOW!!!
hugo

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Crossed Lines - 8. El Mar by Hans Ulrich Lehmann

1/31/2015

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Dear Friends,

When I had this idea to build up a recital dedicated to Swiss Music for Bass Clarinet, one of my first wishes was to include the contrabass clarinet, in order to show this instrument in a solo situation. And after a long search, I found many pieces for bass clarinet, but only this one for contrabass clarinet (this piece can also be played n the bass clarinet).
The title of this piece, "El Mar", is a word game between the sea (in spanish: El Mar) - a recurrent reference in Lehmann's music, and the name of the (Contrabass) Clarinet player from Zurich: Elmar Schmid.
In this piece you can hear some of the solo possibilities of this instrument, exploring the noisy and dynamic range of one of the lowest members of the clarinet family.

I hope you can have as much fun as we had building up this project!
Stay tuned for the upcoming videos, and ...

Keep going .... really LOW!!!
hugo

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Crossed Lines - 7. Intermezzo III

1/24/2015

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Dear Friends,

I'm very happy to present this week's video; it is a very special Intermezzo, played with an amazing contrabass clarinet!
Not long ago, when I had my first contact with a contrabass clarinet, my impression was that it is a slow and boring instrument, extremely expensive and quite big and heavy which can make your travels a complete nightmare!
But after spending a lot of time with it, I realised how wrong I was! Actually, completely wrong!!
I found out an instrument with a super deep an rich sound, full of harmonics that makes it vibrate while playing! The range of the instrument it's much bigger than you can expect, being able to have the same range of a bass clarinet (or even a bit more)! But no matter how much you love it, this instrument can easily make your travels in nightmares! Although it's worthy!
Anyway, here is our little intermezzo with Contrabass Clarinet and Live Electronics!

I hope you can have as much fun as we had building up this project!
Stay tuned for the upcoming videos, and ...

Keep going .... really LOW!!!
hugo

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Crossed Lines - 6. Action for Jackson by Roland Dahinden

1/17/2015

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Dear Friends,

Week after week I've been showing you some Swiss Compositions and some improvisations i did with Samuel Gfeller, at the presentation of my most recent solo project called "Crossed Lines".
So, this week I'm presenting a piece composed by Roland Dahinden, a trombonist (and also alpine horn player), performer, music teacher and composer from Zug; if you never heard anything by him, I would invite you to take a look at his website!
In his composition, Action for Jackson, inspired by Jackson Pollock's painting ECHO and based on Eric Dolphy's SERENE, Dahinden invites the player to freely use stomp box while performing a unique and inspiring piece! This piece results in perfect harmony between the composer's concept and the performer's choice, giving to both a certain freedom to work on create an individual performance!

I hope you can have as much fun as we had building up this project!
Stay tuned for the upcoming videos, and ...

Keep going .... really LOW!!!
hugo

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Crossed Lines - 5. Intermezzo II

1/10/2015

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Dear Friends,

This week is again time to present you an "Intermezzo".
I was amazed and pleased to work with Samuel Gfeller, who showed me how he performs with his laptop; and that's why we could improvised together. In his laptop he creates his instrument and he is able to react and connect to the music as well as any other traditional instrument.
In a world full of music everywhere, why should you go to a concert if you can have the best recordings in your comfortable home? Well, that's why we developed this project: this is unique, spontaneous and in a quite special environment!
Just check it out!

I hope you can have as much fun as we had building up this project!
Stay tuned for the upcoming videos, and ...

Keep going .... really LOW!!!
hugo

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Crossed Lines - 4. Assonance II by Michael Jarrell

1/3/2015

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Dear Friends,

On this week post, I present once again one of the greatest piece (in my opinion) I had the pleasure to play! There is already a recording on my YouTube channel, but once I'm uploading all the concert, I will share a new recording of it!
In 1983, Michael Jarrell wrote Assonance for solo clarinet (if you once can hear it, you must do it!!)! Later on, in 1989, Jarrell wrote Assonance II, a kind of an adaptation of the clarinet piece for solo bass clarinet; but once the bass clarinet has a bigger range, instead of just transposing the piece on 3rd lower, Jarrell re-arranged some passages in order to fit it better to the bass clarinet, keeping the geniality and creativity of the first piece! And Jarrell liked it so much that in 1998 he did a review of Assonance (for clarinet), adding some of the stuff he added in Assonance II (for bass clarinet).
Assonance II was written (or re-writen) for Ernesto Molinari, my bass clarinet tutor in the last two years with whom I worked both pieces. A very nice and extremely smart person and an amazing and inspiring clarinettist and improviser!!!
So, if you are looking for solo music, either for bass clarinet or for clarinet, Jarrell's solo pieces are great!

I hope you can have as much fun as we had building up this project!
Stay tuned for the upcoming videos, and ...

Keep going .... really LOW!!!
hugo

1 Comment

Crossed Lines - 3. Intermezzo I by Hugo Queirós & Samuel Gfeller

12/27/2014

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Dear Friends,

And here it is! This week I'm showing you the other side of our project: the improvisations!
More than one year ago I wanted to create a different concept of recital, joining different aesthetics and sonorities. While searching for help, I meet Samuel Gfeller who took care of all the electronics in this project! This concept was developed in teamwork with both of us, and ended up in a whole performance experience.
All the sounds used in the improvisations are modified clarinet sounds, inspired by the compositions played in this recital. So, very often we can recognise little excerpts from the compositions going out of the speakers, in very distinct and special way.
In the premiere we had four speaker surrounding the audience and the sounds were coming out of every where, making the listening experience much more active and unique. Unfortunately we couldn't take this experience to the YouTube, but here we give you an idea of what can you expect from Crossed Lines!!!

I hope you can have as much fun as we had building up this project!
Stay tuned for the upcoming videos, and ...

Keep going .... really LOW!!!
hugo

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Crossed Lines - 2. Canto by D. P. Hefti

12/20/2014

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Dear Friends,

As I told you in my last post, weekly I'm revealing and presenting the videos from the premiere of Crossed Lines. This week I'm presenting you Canto by David Philip Hefti, a short but effective piece that we thought it would be the the perfect opening piece for our evening. Full of precisely chosen multiphonics that creates an medieval inspired harmony, this piece sets the environment for a full evening of creation.

In the composers website, we can find this information about this piece:
"Canto – for solo bass clarinet was composed in 2012 and is dedicated to the clarinettist Elmar Schmid. Three basic tempos alternate constantly in this one-movement composition. Two of them are related by a ratio of three (presto = 132 / lento = 44), and here the focus is on the tenuto, cantabile passages. The third tempo depends on the abilities and the physique of the performer, since the phrases in question have to be played in a single breath. The extensive use of multiphonics produces echoes of mediaeval polyphony. The musical material was derived from the name of the dedicatee."

I hope you can have as much fun as we had building up this project!
Stay tuned for the upcoming videos, and ...

Keep going .... really LOW!!!
hugo

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Crossed Lines - 1. Presentation

12/13/2014

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Dear Friends,

This is the first of a serie of posts, where I will show you, in detail my last project: "Crossed Lines", where I worked together with Samuel Gfeller - an amazing sound artist o took care of all the electronics in this project.
In this first post / video we present you our project and we give you already some sounds an images of what's coming later. From now on, weekly I will post here one by one, all the pieces and improvisations we did on the premiere of this project. So, in a few weeks we will have a "Playlist" with all the concert. Feel free to comment, ask any question and let us know what you most liked.

The main idea with "Crossed Lines" is to create a whole performance, flowing between contemporary compositions and improvisations with live electronics - avoiding the cliché of clapping between pieces, or loosing you concentration each time the set up is changed.
Is our goal to give to the audience an innovative concert experience where, with diferent compositions with extremely different aesthetics and with variated improvisations, we create a concept of whole work where every sound part fit perfectly.

I hope you can have as much fun as we had building up this project!
Stay tuned for the upcoming videos, and ...

Keep going .... really LOW!!!
hugo

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Fantasie Brillante on themes from Bizet's Carmen

6/4/2014

1 Comment

Dear all,

I would like to share with you all my last upload on my YouTube Channel! And this time is not a contemporary piece from the bass clarinet repertoire.
I decided to take the risk and to present in concert the famous "Fantasie Brillante" that François Borne wrote for flute and piano ... but I did it a bit lower then the original: I did it with a BASS CLARINET!!! I decided to do it as a challenge but I liked it so much that I decided to share it with you all!

I hope you can have as much fun as I had playing it!

Stay tuned for more news, and ...

Keep going .... really LOW!!!
hugo

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