About the Work

Oh, More or Less was composed in 2011 during the composer's residencity at the Bogliasco Foundation in Italy. Part of Gottschalk's work there was to write a piece for Henri Bok, more specifically for his "Duo Hevans", the bass clarinet and tenor saxophone ensemble in which he plays with his wife, Ann Evans. Alea is pleased to publish the work in two versions: the original bass clarinet/tenor saxophone duo, and the composer's revised version for two bass clarinets.

The piece, about seven minutes or less, is informed by the harmonic experiments of Carlo Gesualdo. Extremes of range and special effects are not a part of the vocabulary of this piece, as the composer was much more interested in exploring the rich sound inherent in the bass clarinet/tenor saxophone blend.

About the Composer

American composer Arthur Gottschalk was born in California, but raised in the Northeastern United States. He attended the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, receiving a Bachelor of Music degree in Music Composition, a Master of Arts degree in Music Composition and English Literature, and his Doctorate in Music Composition, studying with William Bolcom, Ross Lee Finney, and Leslie Bassett. He is currently a Professor at Rice University's Shepherd School of Music, where he is Chair of the Department of Music Theory and Composition, and where he directed the university's electronic and computer music laboratories until 2002.

In 1986 he co-founded Modern Music Ventures, Inc., a company which held a recording studio complex, a record production division, four publishing firms, and an artist management division, and for whom he produced records for PolyGram and Capitol. In 1998 Gottschalk abandoned these pursuits, in order that he might devote himself more fully to music composition. Gottschalk's teaching specialties include music business and law, film music, music theory, music composition, and counterpoint. As a film and television composer he numbers six feature films, twelve television scores, and numerous industrial films and commercials among his credits.

Among other awards, he is a recipient of the Charles Ives Prize of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, annual ASCAP Awards since 1980, and has been a Composer-in-Residence at the famed Columbia/Princeton Electronic Music Center and for the Piccolo Spoleto Festival. He has been recently honored with Special Recognition by the ASCAP Rudolph Nissim Awards, the First Prize of the Concorso Internazionale di Composizione Originale - Corciano, Italy, and with the First Prize of the Ridgewood Symphony Orchestra composition competition. With well over one hundred compositions in his catalog, his music is performed regularly in Europe, Asia, and Australia, is recorded on New Ariel, Crystal, Summit, Capstone, Beauport Classical, ERMMedia, Golden Crest, and AURecordings, and is published by Subito Music, Shawnee Press, European American Music Distributors, and Spectrum Press (ASCAP). His book, Functional Hearing, is published by Scarecrow Press.