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.

Scroll through the images to read the review of the transcription in the December 2024 issue of The Clarinet!

Extended-range instrument required for bass clarinet part.

Score: 27 pages. Parts: 4 pages each.

PDF Edition

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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.