SMALL CHAMBER ENSEMBLE - Language Instruction (2003) - cl, vn, vc, pno
Duration - 15:00
clarinet, violin, violoncello, piano
Commissioned by the Fromm Foundation for a consortium of: Contrasts Quartet; Present Music; Auros Group for New Music; Mallarme Chamber Players; SOLI Chamber Ensemble
“The centerpiece was Derek Bermel’s ‘Language Instruction’ (2003), an amusing full ensemble work based on the rhythms and gestures of language tapes. The clarinet was, in effect, the voice on the tape, and the other instruments were the students — variously willing or difficult, competent or bumbling — who must repeat the phrases. Mr. Bermel spins this interaction into an increasingly chaotic fantasy that would have been perfectly at home on a program with Berio’s Sequenza III.”
“Derek Bermel is to be congratulated for making his mixed quartet Language Instruction (2003) a splendidly effective example of the theatre piece genre. The “plot,” a clever send-up of classroom teaching, brims with perfectly timed humor without using dialogue nothing is obscure or overstays its welcome. Best of all, theres musical as well as dramatic logic at work here. One can imagine successfully perceiving the work on a purely aural level without visual cues.”
score & Parts Rental
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ProGram Notes
I began working on "Language Instruction" while studying Brazilian Portuguese language tapes. During the piece the players assume quasi-theatrical roles. The clarinet attempts to "teach" various phrases to the string players, with particular emphasis on the inflections. The players respond with uncertainty at first, and at different speeds. The cellist parrots the phrases faster and more eagerly, the violinist more timidly. As with the language-tape process, the learning progresses slowly, with the "teacher" often breaking down the phrases into constituent parts and combining them with other phrases. Because of the slow speed of retention, the piece at times takes on a "minimalist" form.
It soon becomes clear that one student in the "class" poses a particular difficulty. The pianist cannot imitate the inflections correctly, being unable to gliss along a single note. This proves frustrating for the pianist, who is eager to participate in the lessons. After various tantrums, he/she discovers a solution--adapt the phrases to fit the instrument's particular limits (or "accent"). This moment proves to be a significant event in the drama, and the string players, intrigued, begin to switch allegiance to their new "teacher".
Throughout the piece the players should attempt to muster an actor's conviction in conveying the quirks of their own character and developing their relationships to the other players.