Gêmdis with Ensemble Musikfabrik

Gêmdis (2020)

for E-flat clarinet and ensemble

The title Gêmdis combines the Welsh words for “game” and “dice”, and — like a desperate gambler — Bethan Morgan-Williams’s piece for E-flat clarinet and ensemble keeps returning for another roll. Each new start takes the music through a different set of emotional states, from playful to down and dirty, from the still voice of conscience to the horns of a dilemma. Or does it keep returning to the same place?

Are things out of control, then — or not?

Gêmdis was written as part of the Composer Collider Europe programme for Carl Rosman and Ensemble Musikfabrik.

– Tim Rutherford-Johnson

Performance / Recording

Recorded by Martin Pilger at the Studio of Ensemble Musikfabrik (Köln), 3-4 November 2020.

Conductor: Christian Eggen

Flute=Piccolo: Helen Bledsoe
Oboe=Cor Anglais=Slide Whistle: Peter Veale
Solo E-flat Clarinet: Carl Rosman
Horn=Slide Whistle: Christine Chapman
Trombone=Slide Whistle: Bruce Collings
Tuba=Slide Whistle: Melvyn Poore
Piano=Slide Whistle: Benjamin Kobler

Listen to the recording