Video & Score: Quassus, for solo clarinet

Eli-Eri Moura – [email protected]
  Universidade Federal da Paraíba

The Latin word ‘quassus’ alludes to shaking, quaking. In the piece, it is a reference to ‘frevo’ – carnival march-like/dance from the Brazilian state Pernambuco, whose term comes from ‘ferver’ (or ‘frever’, by means of language corruption), meaning ‘boiling’ in Portuguese, in allusion to effervescence, excitement. As homage to one of the icons of ‘frevo’, Maestro Duda, the whole structural process of Quassus for clarinet solo (in special the second movement – the first is a big upbeat to the second) converges to the materialization, in the very end, of a melodic fragment from ‘Marquinhos no Frevo’, by Duda. Quassus is dedicated to the clarinetist Gueber Santos, who accompanied the whole process of composition and contributed with relevant technical advising about the instrument.