Basset clarinet concerto premiere with Michael Collins and Tapiola Sinfonietta

On 9 October, Michael Collins premieres IZAKHI, a concerto for basset clarinet and chamber orchestra, with Tapiola Sinfonietta directed by Collins.

This piece was written following an inspirational trip to South Africa in 2024. The original idea, conceived with dedicatee Michael Collins, was to write a ‘four elements’ work; but Beamish's entire concept of the elements was altered by the experience of visiting this extraordinary, beautiful and troubled country.

The title, IZAKHI, is the Zulu word for ‘elements’, in the sense of building blocks – or the materials used to create our habitats. It also refers to those who build – who create those habitats from assembled resources.

Beamish thought about the construction of a clarinet: made of wood, metal (brazed in a furnace), reed, and activated by air.

She then chose percussion to characterise the movements, each of which references an element: Air (bamboo windchimes, swanee whistle, a block of polystyrene), Earth (Xylophone), Water (Waterphone, rainstick) and Fire (metal instruments - cymbal, thunder sheet, glockenspiel, side drum with steel brushes).

The first movement, Weaverbird (air), is inspired by watching these amazing birds constructing their nests – oblong ‘baskets’ made of grass and reeds, which hang from the branches of trees. It begins with a notation of the bird’s song, and the music is then ‘woven’ - adding more and more intricate strands. In the centre is a soundscape suggested by the rich diversity of the African savannah – layer upon layer of birdsong, the sound of wind in trees, the rustling of dry seedpods, and the whirring of wings. The movement closes by ascending into the highest registers of the instruments.

This is followed by Cradle (earth); the title a reference to the ‘Cradle of Humankind’ – a museum Beamish visited near Johannesburg. The idea of the earth as cradle is poignant; as the young it has nurtured have risen up and begun to destroy it. The music is partly inspired by Bantu call-and-response a cappella singing, and the movement is a chaconne – repeating a set of chorale-like chords, with variations. The central section is more playful; the soloist interacting with xylophone and pizzicato strings. Towards the end, the music settles into a lullaby, before the opening chorale returns.

The third movement, Thirst, refers to water, but focuses more on its absence – on drought and parched landscapes. The percussion here includes waterphone – a bowed metallophone with a water-filled resonating pan. Pizzicato strings and rainstick suggest sporadic rain but not rivers or fast-moving bodies of water – only dryness.

At the beginning, the clarinet uses multiphonics to blend with the waterphone, before a plaintive soliloquy over pizzicato strings. The movement explores a static soundworld.

The last movement, Wildfire, transforms some of the themes from the previous movement, and depicts the transition from extreme dryness to the sparking of fire, which becomes increasingly wild and uncontrolled, before finally subsiding. The percussion is mostly metal-based: cymbal, glockenspiel, thunder sheet, and a side drum played with steel brushes. The last section is a lament – first a duet between soloist and timpani, and then taking the chorale music from the second movement (Cradle), over which the soloist plays the soliloquy from the third movement. The piece finishes with the call of the Weaverbird.

Commissioned by the Tapiola Sinfonietta, the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra, the Academy of St Martin in the Fields and the Swedish Chamber Orchestra.

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