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I wanted to cover two techniques from Sciarrino’s wind quintet, Il silenzio degli oracoli, as I get asked about these a lot and I don’t think I’ve really covered this in another part of the blog – he does do similar things with the other instruments in the wind quintet here, so this post might help you to understand what happens throughout the piece.

If you’re interested in these techniques, you might also find the post on harmonic trills for Bb clarinet useful, as Sciarrino also makes a great deal of use of them in his Let me die before I wake.

You can also view this blog post as a video (which might make it easier to understand what I’m doing with the clarinet as you will see me demonstrate everything):

Sciarrino writes the following in the legend to the score:

He really means what he says: the top two trill keys are constantly trilled with the right hand, while the clarinetist plays whatever he writes within those two ranges on the left. Because the right hand is already busy, the composer is restricted to what can be achieved with the left hand. (Note: the whole blog post is in written – not sounding – pitches. Like all of my blogposts!)

In the second technique, he more or less reverses the idea. The two keys necessary to play the Bb are held open while simultaneously playing a low C in the left hand, and the action is in the right. There is a gradual and slight detuning of the pitch as the clarinetist moves down.

You can listen to all of Sciarrino’s piece below, and the score is available on Nkoda!

I hope that makes it clear – please let me know if you have any questions!

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