This site is home to Alea Publishing & Recording, specializing in music for the bass clarinet.
We offer a growing catalog of creative, artistic transcriptions and new works for bass clarinet solo & ensemble.
About the Music
Heart Has Teeth for bass clarinet and string quartet was written for the Lunenburg Academy of Music Performance (LAMP) Festival in music composition which took place in June 2023, with bass clarinetist Sarah Watts on the faculty. We thank the composer for sharing this program note about the piece:
I wanted to stretch myself compositionally by using dissonance as a starting point, so I sat at the piano and tapped out a two-part pitch set that starts on a major seventh and ends on a minor second. I then expanded the pitch set into the chord progression that is the motivic cornerstone of the piece.
The title, Heart Has Teeth, came to me mid-writing. I don’t think I would have been thinking about exploring dissonance if I wasn’t experiencing some inner dissonance in my life, and while I was writing this piece, stress and anxiety were taking up a lot of my mental space. Once I realized that my more-negative-than-usual emotions were seeping into the piece, I actually felt empowered – for the first time, I was listening to and giving voice to my anxiety, resentment, guilt, remorselessness, shame, standoffishness, and anger. Although my heart is open, full, and kind, it also has teeth, and they bite.
Throughout the piece, I explore different facets of the musical motives I established in the context of different emotions. You’ll hear painful forte’s, condescending harmonics, wails, growls, and at the of the piece, I write to the players, “anger doesn’t fade, build to a scream.” Within all this turmoil is beauty, though: beauty in embracing the ugly and allowing myself to experience the full, terrifying, and inspiring range of all my emotions.
Extended-range instrument required for bass clarinet part.
Score: 27 pages, spiral bound. Parts: 4 pages each, booklet.
Hard Copy Edition
Add this item to your cart if you wish to have the hard-copy music shipped to you. The composer has also authorized the sale of this piece via PDF download: click here to choose that option.
About the Composer
Emma Kent Wine (b. 1995) is recognized across the United States as a composer whose music “testifies to wonder, vitality, sagacity, and nostalgia through profound simplicity” (The Boston Musical Intelligencer). A graduate of The Shepherd School of Music at Rice University, Emma earned her Bachelor’s of Music in Music Composition with Distinction in Research and Creative Works. At Rice University, she studied with Dr. Richard Lavenda, Dr. Karim Al-Zand, Dr. Anthony Brandt, and Dr. Arthur Gottschalk. She also studied with Dr. Matthew Barnson, Dr. David Ludwig, and Dr. Keith Fitch at Rocky Ridge Music Center and Dr. Samuel Adler at FUBiS in Berlin, Germany. She has received commissions from Rice University, Houston Grand Opera Community Outreach, Juventas New Music Ensemble, and Cantorei at Clemson University. When she’s not composing, you may find her reading Star Wars novels, cycling, or coaching the Rice University women’s Ultimate frisbee team with her girlfriend.
Kim Davenport
President
Duo Alea, the father-daughter duo of Michael and Kimberly Davenport, began performing music for bass clarinet and piano in 1996. As performers searching for new repertoire and teachers working with students eager to develop as performers, it quickly became clear that there was a need for more repertoire featuring the bass clarinet. Filling this need became the mission of Alea Publishing & Recording.
Since our first publication in 1997, the Alea catalog has now grown to include over 300 titles. We pride ourselves on the accuracy and quality of our sheet music, as well as our ability to ship directly to customers around the world.
We are proud of the diversity of our catalog in terms of the inclusion of works by composers and arrangers from around the world. We are interested in continuing to expand this diversity, representing musical ideas from around the world.
Following Michael's passing in 2019, Kim has taken over solo management of Alea Publishing. In 2020, Alea established the Dolphy Prize, an annual composition award for new works for bass clarinet by black composers.
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