Paolo Marchettini: Ebony Chants

Clarinetist Paolo Marchettini has his own solution to the relative paucity of music for solo clarinet: he writes some himself, then performs it. His new CD for New Focus Recordings is all-clarinet – actually all-clarinets, plural, since it includes not only solo pieces but also ones for as many as four clarinets. This disc shows Marchettini (born 1974) being quite conversant with 21st-century compositional techniques as well as with the capabilities of his chosen instrument. An hour-plus of this material is, however, a bit much – non-clarinetists may wish to sample the (+++) disc instead of listening to it straight through. But certainly the CD shows how much can be communicated in contemporary terms by the clarinet, whether as a solo or in a group. The solo pieces are scattered throughout the disc. Cinque Oraculi (2022) includes five short pieces written with quarter-tones and calling on varying approaches to melody and rhythm – the contrast with the far more melodic Five Anecdotes by Segovia is notable on multiple levels, not just that of the differing instrumental qualities. Prayer (2011) is quiet, meditative and less experimental-sounding than Cinque Oraculi,although it calls on some similar performance techniques. Three Sketches (2010) consists of three minute-and-a-half displays of specific elements of clarinet sound and technique. Tratto(2016/2019) is more extended and makes a greater attempt to explore some of the clarinet’s emotionally evocative capabilities. There is also an interesting short work for solo bass clarinet (played by Tommy Shermulis):

Entrée (2006) is a series of disconnected fragments showing the instrument in multiple registers and with multiple sounds, not all of them particularly pleasant. As for the multi-clarinet works here, one of them both opens and closes the CD: the first movement of Due Canti (2022), for clarinet trio, starts the recital, and the second movement concludes it. The opening piece begins as a solo and then becomes more expansive as the other clarinets join, while the closing one starts with all three instruments and becomes more expressively lyrical than most of the other works on the disc. The other music on the CD mixes clarinets (and sometimes bass clarinet) in varying ways. Preludio e Corrente(2009) for clarinet quartet has one stop-and-go movement and one that contrasts constant motion with an occasional broader passage. Cinque Fanfare Napoletane (2020) for clarinet trio is light, pleasant and somewhat more readily accessible than much of the rest of the disc, being based on Neapolitan songs that become the foundation for various brief flights of fancy. Epitaffio (2022) for clarinet quartet is in part suitably solemn, in part staccato, in totality rather meandering. There are also two works for clarinet ensemble, meaning multiple clarinets overdubbed onto themselves. Music of Color (2020) and Nec Clari (2006) are both sound clouds, the former more hectic and the latter quieter and more expressive. This is a self-limited recording in the sense that it will really appeal only to listeners fascinated by solo and multiple clarinets and by ways of using the instrument within a thoroughly modern context that is frequently at odds with the clarinet’s typical rich tone and emotive capabilities. Clarinetists themselves will find much of interest here if they are looking for something new for their own explorations of their instrument. Other listeners will likely be somewhat bemused, if not over-saturated, if they listen to the disc in its totality.

— Mark Estren, 4.27.2024

The Italian composer and clarinetist Paolo Marchettini wrote these assorted chamber
works for clarinet between 2006 and 2022; the album, titled Ebony Chants, is the follow-up to a
New Focus release in 2021 that featured larger works, not all with clarinet. There, one read
extravagant praise for Marchettini from his former teacher, Richard Danielpour, who called him
“arguably one of the greatest Italian composers alive today.” Such a fulsome endorsement can
raise expectations and skepticism at the same time. Marchettini was educated in his
native Rome as well as the Manhattan School in New York.

Of the 11 works on the program, four were composed for solo clarinet, while the rest
could be described as a cappella clarinets, varying in strength from a clarinet trio to an entire
ensemble, the latter overdubbed with one or two players performing all the voices. The composer
appears in all but a single solo piece, Entrée, which is given to bass clarinetist Tommy
Shermulis. (For the sake of simplicity, I haven’t sorted out who plays what in the headnote;
Marchettini’s colleagues overlap in most of the pieces.) His writing is compact enough that the
23 tracks on the disc take only an hour.

Marchettini currently teaches at the Manhattan School, which doesn’t signal that he always aims to be
up-to-the-minute contemporary. It is possible in this collection to encounter an experimental work like Cinque Oracoli,
which employs multiphonics, quarter tones, and what the program notes describe as “expressive micro-
appoggiaturas.” What is most contemporary about Marchettini’s style is its eclecticism, which
renders him free to write the wistful romantic melody that begins “Il canto del giorno,” the first
of his Due Canti. Unlike the norm in New Music, Marchettini often adheres to a recognizable
mood, as in the somber Prayer dedicated to peace, where extended techniques softly decorate the
lyrical line.

This grounding in distinct feelings helps to pull the listener in, but just as appealing is the
sense of dignity and modesty in Marchettini’s expression. He seems to prefer subtlety above all,
to the point that his ear is engaged by combining the same identical timbres from three or more
clarinets; a contrasting timbre is only occasionally added through bass clarinet. A lovely example
is the two-minute Epitaffio, a quartet aptly described in the notes as “solemn, as undulating, close
interval phrases are dotted by unsettling staccato attacks.”

This kind of gentle, frequently understated acoustic music depends on its moodiness and
close listening to details—everything feels minutely and carefully stitched. Technology appears
in the overdubbed clarinet ensemble encountered in Nec Clari, its intertwined lines performed
by Marchettini. Here an allusion is made in the booklet to Jackson Pollock’s action painting,
along with a sample of Marchettini’s squiggly, multi-colored score. An agitated improvisatory
solo clarinet jitters in the foreground while “a rite of passage from one chord to another [moves]
through chaos.” In typical fashion the chaos feels like flickering brushstrokes rather than
apocalypse. A second overdubbed ensemble, the bustling, chattering Music of Color, sounds for
all the world like the Shrovetide Fair from Petrushka turned on its head. It features Shermulis on
bass clarinet alongside Marchettini.

I’ve provided only a selective cross-section of a program that is surprisingly varied and
entertaining, given that we hear an hour of clarinets only. It’s probably best to listen in groups of
three or four pieces, although I can see approaching Ebony Chants as a single arc of
kaleidoscopic sounds. Either way, this is New Music at its most accessible without sacrificing
ingenious contemporary touches and extended techniques.

Five stars: A surprise success in enjoyable contemporary pieces for clarinets

— Huntley Dent, 5.22.2024

Marchettini's visionary clarinet universe finds full expression in these Ebony Chants; the pieces for solo instrument alternate with compositions for duo, trio and quartet which see the composer himself performing with valid colleagues. A distinctive feature is Marchettini's omnivorous and kaleidoscopic musical approach, capable of making a sound world that includes Neapolitan songs and baroque reminiscences, post minimal rhythms and electronics, surprising and at the same time coherent. Twenty-three short compositions that favor a density of writing aimed at illuminating the contrasts: those between brilliant timbre and voiceless sound, between serious and bright register.

If Due Canti, placed at the opening and closing, exhibits a fresh tonal writing, the language of the solo pieces and of Music of Color, perhaps the most intense moment of the work, a true vortex of clarinets, is more enigmatic. Marchettini's is a fully contemporary language, happily balanced between melodic taste and contrapuntal construction.

Five stars

— Ruben Marzà, 7.01.2024

Ebony Chants, featuring the music of clarinetist Paolo Marchettini, is a day in the life of the second-most listenable woodwind (after bassoon). It opens with the first of Due Canti: Il canto del giorno, and closes, after much business and play, with the suitably named counterpart, Il canto della notte.

For several works Marchettini is joined by Meng Zhang and Ka Hei Chan on clarinet and Tommy Shermulis on bass clarinet. The parts are rotated democratically (if the listing order on the jacket indicates what it seems to). They are all excellent, and the material is mostly in brief segments lasting in the range of one to three minutes. Most delightful are his Cinque Fanfare Napoletane, which reference popular traditional melodies with affection and humour. Nothing is ever trite, although on the overly-serious side I am less of a fan of Nec Clari, a somewhat foggy multi-track overdubbing of the composer’s own playing. At over six minutes I lose attention (a product of my times, I admit), and I find his tone on bass clarinet to be less than compelling. Shermulis, by contrast, sounds terrific both as ensemble member and soloist for Entrée, a tough-sounding solo work. I’d love to hear him take a swing at Soft, Franco Donatoni’s work for the same instrument.

Sad to say, the online jacket material includes only Marchettini’s bio details, not those of his collaborators, a detail I mentally file alongside other examples of sub-optimal digital publishing.

— Max Christie, 6.07.2024