La Ville Entiere

The composition of La Ville Entière occupied the whole of 1984. The work takes its title from Max Ernst’s eponymous painting, which I first saw in the Künsthaus in Zurich in 1980. The piece not only reflects the nocturnal atmosphere of Ernst’s painting, but also provides a parallel to its theme of a man-made object in a landscape of exotic foliage – the former reflected in the mechanistic piano part and the latter in the basically expressive clarinet part.

The work also enacts a scenario in which the clarinet is gradually drawn into the piano’s mode of playing.  The climax of this is marked by both instruments reiterating middle D. The clarinet then reacts against this, so that by the end of the piece the position is as it was at the beginning. This manner of composition leads to many contradictions between the parts, especially in terms of dynamics.

I chose to write for the E-flat clarinet, not because of its shrill upper register, but more for the mysterious hollow quality of its lower notes, which seemed appropriate to the piece.               

La Ville Entière was commissioned by the Brighton Festival and premiere on 8 May 1984 at the Brighton Festival by Alan Hacker (clarinet) and Karen Evans (piano).

Philip Grange