SoundState: Claire Chase & Density 2036

In early April this year we’re lucky enough to welcome her to the Southbank Centre as part of our SoundState musical festival. Chase takes to our Queen Elizabeth Hall stage to perform the European premiere of Liza Lim’ ‘Sex Magic’, described by the composer as ‘a work about the sacred erotic in women’s history’.

But as well as being a stand-out piece in its own right, ‘Sex Magic’ was commissioned by Chase as part of her 24-year project, Density 2036. The project takes its name from Edgard Varèse’s 1936 solo Density 21.5 and began in 2013 when Chase set out to create an entirely new repertoire, expanding the boundaries of the flute, by commissioning a new programme of music for the instrument every year until the 100th anniversary of Varèse’s work. 

Ahead of welcoming this latest Density 2036 commission to the Southbank Centre, we take a closer look at some of the previous pieces from this radical and extraordinary project, and the works which inspired it.

Density 21.5, Edgard Varèse

Chase was 13 when she first heard Varèse’s Density 21.5 and, in a 2017 interview with Ashville Grit, she described this momentous initial listen. ‘I got bitten by the bug, and it was totally visceral and emotional. I became completely obsessed with the piece and I didn’t want to play anything else.’ Today, Chase estimates having played the piece well over a thousand times.

Vermont Counterpoint, Steve Reich

Chase’s recording of Varèse’s Density 21.5 for solo flute concludes her third solo album. She begins that record Density, with Steve Reich’s ‘Vermont Counterpoint’ – an 11-flute piece initially, that incrementally reduces the number of instruments piece by piece. Originally commissioned in 1982 by flautist Ransom Wilson, ‘Vermont Counterpoint’ takes the listener on a 10-minute journey through the ongoing counterpoint between the live and pre-recorded flute, and extended melodic patterns. Chase’s Density was awarded album of the week by Q2 Music in a review that described the ‘Vermont Counterpoint’ recording in particular as ‘majestic’.

Pessoa, Marcos Balter

One of the first composers to be commissioned by Chase for Density 2036 was Brazilian Marcos Balter, who described his first musical encounter with the flautist as ‘love at first sight’. Part of the project’s debut 2013 programme, Balter’s piece, ‘Pessoa’, is written for six bass flutes, and is inspired, in part, by a poem from the Portuguese poet Fernando Pessoa.

Luciform, Mario Diaz de Léon

Also commissioned by Chase as part of Density 2036’s initial 2013 programme, Mario Diaz de Léon’s Luciform had its first London outing when performed by Chase here at the Southbank Centre. Luciform contrasts the melody of the flute with Diaz de Léon’s large, swooping electronics.

Emergent, George Lewis

Commissioned for part two of Density 2036 in 2014 George Lewis’ ‘Emergent’ for flute and electronics also functions as the opening part of the composer’s Recombinant Trilogy. Reviewing a performance of the piece, The New York Times described it as beginning ‘with a shrieking dialogue between the flute and electronic sounds, which swiftly transformed into what sounded like — and also, oddly, very unlike — bird calls, before ending in a shivery, icy mood, as on a glacier or space station’.

Lila, Dai Fujikura

Born in Osaka, Japan, Dai Fujikura has been based in London since the age of 15. ‘Lila’, for flute, bass flute and contrabass flute, commissioned for part three of Density 2036 in 2015, is based on the solo part of a flute concerto which the composer has also written for Chase. Fujikura has described Lila as telling ‘a story from the flute player’s point of view, starting with a light poetic variety of sounds that are produced and related by the player’s articulations, then dance like cascades.’

The Stimulus of Loss, Suzanne Farrin

As we’ve already established, the aim of Chase’s Density 2036 project was to create an entirely new repertoire of music for the flute, and it’s safe to say that a duet between the instrument and the early theramin-like electrical instrument the Ondes Martenot fits very much in that category. It’s Suzanne Farrin’s ‘The Stimulus of Loss’ from 2016’s part four of the project that throws together these unlikely companions in a work featuring breathtaking, vaunted glissandos and liquid waves of music.

Magic Flu-idity, Olga Neuwirth

Commissioned in 2018 for the sixth part of Density 2036, Olga Neuwrith’s ‘Magic Flu-idity’ received its premiere in New York’s The Kitchen in March 2019. The piece, which is a solo flute version of Neuwirth’s ‘Aello – ballet mécanomorphe’, a piece which Claire Chase had performed many times before, is another work within Chase’s ongoing project to feature an unlikely musical pairing, that of flute and typewriter.