Overview
Title: Steep Steps for solo bass clarinet
Composer: Elliott Carter (1908-2012)
Composition Year: 2001
Instrumentation: Solo Bass Clarinet (Low C)
Extended Techniques: N/A
Duration: ca. 3 minutes
Difficulty Level: 4/5
Welcome to the other half of today’s analysis on Elliott Carter’s clarinet music! First we looked at Gra, for solo clarinet, and now we’ll be looking at Steep Steps, which is for solo bass clarinet. This is definitely one of the better-known pieces in the bass clarinet repertoire; it’s popular recital fare due to its short duration, name recognition, and relative accessibility as a contemporary piece, especially compared to much other bass clarinet rep.
I already gave a brief overview of Elliott Carter in my Gra analysis, so I won’t put one here. I will point out, though, that Carter wrote several other pieces featuring the bass clarinet, including chamber music and a concertino for bass clarinet and chamber orchestra, written in 2009 when Carter was over 100 years old! Steep Steps was written eight years earlier, in 2001, for bass clarinetist Virgil Blackwell, a friend of Carter’s. Blackwell gave the premiere on October 17, 2001 in New York City.
Analysis
Steep Steps’s melodic writing is meant to show off the bass clarinet’s enormous range. Carter himself notes that the basis for the piece is the fact that the (bass) clarinet overblows at the 12th instead of the octave, like other woodwind instruments. Many phrases are built around outlining the 12th that Carter refers to. Some examples are:
Mm. 1-3: Phrase ends with a jump from clarion E to low A.
Mm. 5.2-9: Phrase begins on clarion C# and ends on low F# at m. 8.3 (the 32nd notes afterwards are ornamental).
M. 12: Phrase begins with altissimo F-clarion A-flat-left hand Db, which is actually an outline of the harmonic series starting on that Db. You could conceivably play all three notes without changing the fingering!
M. 12.3-14.3: Phrase starts on clarion A-flat and travels to left hand C#. You could argue that the phrase continues into m. 17, but I prefer to breathe after that C#.
That’s just four examples of phrases built around the 12th and I was only looking at the first page of the piece; there are plenty of other instances later on. You’re going to need a really solid grasp on voicing in order to make this piece work, so if that’s not something you’ve practiced a whole lot, definitely make that a regular part of your routine (and even if you’re not playing this piece, that’s just a really important thing to practice in general!)
Like with Gra, Steep Steps explores two contrasting characters: One lyrical and smooth, the other rough and angry. The piece switches between the two characters in a conversational manner. Make any soft/lyrical parts smooth and refined. The loud, pointier sections can sound a little “ruder,” especially the accented notes. For these sections, keep the air supported through all the rests, otherwise all the little pieces making up the phrase will not sound connected. Remember, you are pushing the tone quality near its limit, not past. Get as much contrast as you can between the two characters so it actually sounds like two people speaking with each other (or maybe, in this case, talking past each other?)
These are the fingerings I’d recommend using for the altissimo notes:
D: R -2-|--- (this is a “backless” fingering; do not close the left thumb tone hole)
D#/Eb: Overblown throat G# in all cases.
E: Overblown clarion G for the one in m. 10 (use half-hole key), overblown throat A for all others.
F: T R 123 C#|123 F#/C# in all cases.
F#: T R 12-|123 Ab/Eb is good for the one in the m.3, though it is rather sharp.
G#: T R 1–|--- Side Eb/Bb key.
Good luck and have fun!
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