New Album: Semiramis
An album of solos and duets for a clarinet and oboe, inspired by serialism and medieval mysticism -- listen here or on Bandcamp for free or on all the usual streaming services in the next week or two. As ever there's a bit more about the music below the fold.
"Semiramis" is a series of imaginary monologues and dialogues involving Semiramis, the mythical queen of Assyria, and an augur. This back-story comes from my reading of Frands Herschend's account of an 11th century text -- I haven't read the text itself and don't know anything much about the medieval French context so my impressions of it from the essay are much like what you'd get if you watched a documentary about Babylon while under the effects of a high fever. I can't tell you exactly what transpires between them except that it's mystical, confusing and seemingly a satire on the politics of its time.
It turns out I really like the SWAM woodwinds and I couldn't resist using two of them as the "voices" in these pieces -- a clarinet for Semiramis and an oboe for the augur. Because these are the only instruments and there are no explicitly "electronic" elements, this is very sparse music. It could even be austere, but I tried to really imbue the melodies with speaking and singing qualities and to use a lot of dynamic contrast to keep things interesting.
This album started as an engagement with Schoenberg's song cycle "The Book of the Hanging Gardens" (which Semiramis is said to have built):
But this piece, while largely atonal, predates the invention of serialism. "Semiramis", by contrast, is quite strictly serial, a technique I've never used with any seriousness before and have here used in a very peculiar way. To keep a connection with the starting-point, I used series from Schoenberg.
The peculiar approach to serialism was as follows. I recorded each piece as a very intuitive atonal improvisation, then exported the MIDI and ran it through a python script that adjusted the pitches as little as possible to conform them to the chosen series. Then the MIDI was re-imported into Reaper and used as the starting-point for further editing.
This is a fairly silly way to go about things but it yielded results that I wouldn't have got any other way. The improvisational origin of the music enabled me to capture the vocal qualities I wanted; the serialization of the pitches creates intervallic relationships that keep coming back, both within and across pieces. But the ability to edit afterwards restores creative freedom and allowed me to prioritize musicality over correctness.
The music doesn't sound much like Schoenberg; it's closer to Birtwistle, a composer I'm evidently still very deeply influenced by. In particular I think there's an echo of his short piece for clarinet and piano, "Verses", which I used to try to play when I was an ambitious but not-very-good clarinettist:
Like that piece, I've tried to make music that's inviting and rather relaxing -- trance-like, hermetic and alien but not abrasive or harsh. I think the approach could have yielded up a tough listen but actually this album is pretty easy-going, but of course your mileage may vary... Enjoy!
[Aside: I've had a horrible start to 2026 for reasons I needn't trouble you with. I'm sorry if you've been in touch and I haven't replied yet; I'll try to, but drop me another message if I don't. I'm working through it and have more musical projects beginning to bear fruit again.]
