from The Clarinet, March 2009

by William Nichols

To say the least, it isn't everyday that a CD of bass clarinet duets appears in my office. It is the first of its kind in my collection and l suspect the first of its genre — period. In light of the emerging repertoire and higher profile of the instrument in the last several decades, (to paraphrase old movie previews) this disc “had to be made,” and we listeners and clarinetists are the better for it.

This 2007 production bears the ensemble's name as its title, Sqwonk. The duo is comprised of very talented San Francisco-based artists Jeff Anderle and Jon Russell. Sqwonk formed in 2005 and has already commissioned more than a dozen original works and has performed extensively in the Bay area. They just completed an east coast tour which featured Jon Russell’s Duo Bass Clarinet Concerto with the Great Noise Ensemble in Washington, D.C. Many readers heard these two clarinetists perform as members of the bass clarinet quartet Edmund Welles on a featured evening concert at the 2008 ClarinetFest in Kansas City.

Jeff Anderle is an active performer of contemporary music. He is the clarinetist with the ADORNO Ensemble and Redshift, and has appeared with the Del Sol String Quartet and the San Francisco Contemporary Music Players. He was the clarinetist for the Bang on a Can Summer Festival in 2007. He serves on the faculty of the San Francisco Conservatory, from which he holds a master's degree. He completed a bachelor's degree at UCLA.

Composer/clarinetist Jon Russell is a Harvard and San Francisco Conservatory graduate who has received commissions from the San Francisco Symphony, the Empyrean Ensemble, the Harvard-Radcliffe Orchestra, and the Woodstock Chamber Orchestra, with performances from other ensembles such as the Berkley Symphony and the San Francisco Composers Chamber Orchestra. He has composed an impressive body of works for diverse media. Jon Russell is active as the clarinetist with the Balkan/klezmer/experimental band Zoyres. He also serves on the composition faculty of the Adult Extension and Prep Divisions of the San Francisco Conservatory.

Four of the five recorded pieces are original bass clarinet works by young Americans: two by Jon Russell (...and the Beast ..., and KlezDuo); Proﬁteering by Ian Dicke; and Valediction by Damon Waitkus. Also programmed is none other than J. S. Bach's Toccata and Fugue in D Minor arranged by (the no doubt destined-to-be distinguished) Prof. Sqwonkle McKonkle. The briefest of tongue-in-cheek program notes state that: “At long last, scholars have uncovered the original manuscript of this beloved work, finally restoring this masterpiece to Bach’s intended instrumentation.” Frivolity notwithstanding. the transcription, complete in structure, works quite well, especially the fugue, although the toccata (as is almost always the case in the many transcriptions of this piece) does not have the speed, the improvisatory effect, and ﬂare of a solo keyboard performance. If ever having made any arrangement of this piece myself, l too, like Prof. McKonkie. would search for a nom de plume.

The largest work on the disc is Jon Russell's …and the Beast..., which is cast in five movements, and is described in the form of a pithy comment, “A day in the life of the common beast." (Although there are only the briefest of comments accompanying this CD about each piece, more program information for most of the pieces can be found on the ensemble's Web site.) Depicted by the five movements, the beast (mine is named Buffet) awakens, creeps, dances, attacks, sleeps. This music takes the listener through a range of musical effects from the hypnotic purity of the opening material based on perfectly tuned fourths/ﬁfths, to darkness, and to the raucous and aggressive sounds of heavy metal. (We don't have to have guitars, amplifiers and drums to espouse the aesthetic.) It has sections of strong rhythmic obstinate and moments of poignant lyricism such as found in the last movement's middle sec — a haunting altissimo solo. Some fascinating colors are achieved in this work and some difference tones seem to be present at times, which should be even more evident to younger ears than to this writer's. The piece is given an enthusiastically committed performance, and passes by in what seems to be a shorter span than its indicated 18-minute timing.

Russell's KlezDuo is "The most-performed bass clarinet duet in the history of time EVER, finally available to you on CD!” — to quote those brief comments accompanying each title. The composer states that KlezDuo “is a boisterous and energetic romp,” and that it is, but only alter a slow and soulful introduction complete with growls and pitch bends. in the subsequent lively dance the players get loose, to say the least, with tones and slap tonguing to satisfy the most hardcore klezmerite. It is great fun.

Proﬁteering by a then 24-year-old Ian Dicke dates from 2006 and is a continuous work in a three-part structure. It was commissioned by Sqwonk and bears the comment: “Warlords enjoy a Caribbean jaunt with your tax dollars.” Proﬁteering is a protest piece against lraq war profiteering by companies such as Halliburton, Lockheed Martin. and Bechtel. Sqwonk’s Web site contains the composer's notes. The piece certainly stands alone without programmatic references. The opening allegro section is in a steady rhythmically punctuated light Latin style, peppered occasionally with heavy repeated dissonances. It moves into a very beautiful chorale middle section which exhibits some effectively expressive counterpoint, interrupted rudely by the dissonant material from the previous section The closing fast section presents intricate interlocking scale patterns which are again interrupted by the dissonant patterns of the opening. This is an interesting and well-crafted new work.

Damon Waitkus' Valediction bears the rather cryptic by-line: “Smart, funny, indubitably our better, but also one of the gang." Any other program information escapes my search. The piece is an eight-minute duet in three sections played without pause and entitled: “101 Punch Lines," “Blues,” and “Best Wishes.” The opening section utilizes a heavily articulated obstinate idea (punch lines?) which is interrupted occasionally by short contrasting, sometimes chaotic material. The “Blues” is fast and not overtly bluesy. It demands some intricate rhythmic precision from the performers, and morphs into a calmer "Best wishes," a brief closing coda.

There is demanding music throughout this disc and Sqwonk’s committed performance conveys the musical ideas vividly. The instruments are also vividly recorded, in-your-face close-up, and with plenty of rhythmic punch. There occurs some very effective stereo imaging in some intricate passages. Some key noise, reed fuzz and breathing is present here and there, but it seems perfectly natural in this context. This disc is not about pristine perfection and compositional complexity, but about musical excitement, collaboration and sense of spontaneity. It offers accessible music which appeals to a wide ranging audience. It succeeds on these counts — it rocks!

With the bass clarinet’s workable four-octave (+) range, its ability to produce varying timbres. a wide dynamic range, and improving instruments, there are still fertile ﬁelds for composers to explore. Jeff Anderle and Jon Russell are to be commended for committing their talents and efforts in this concertizing and commissioning activity.

Sqwonk is copyrighted by (who else, but) Sqwonkie McKonkie Productions, and bears no catalog number. The CD is available from: <www.sqwonk.org> and <www.cdbaby.com>, and also by downloads from <www.itunes.com>, as well as from the Sqwonk Web site.