Clarinetist Mark Dover presents a heartfelt rendition of “Is This Loss” for his edition of Metropolis Ensemble’s House Music Series. “Is This Loss” is the title track of his debut EP as part of Port Mande, a duet between himself and pianist Jeremy Jordan. But collaborative concerts are nearly impossible during the pandemic, so here, Dover performs in a duet with himself, showing a remarkable flexibility and dexterity.
Dover’s work with Metropolis Ensemble began in 2018 with a performance part of Metropolis’s Invisible Roads chamber music series at 1 Rivington, which encourages bridges between musical styles. Dover and Metropolis had initially met through pianist Erika Dohi, and since, they’ve created many future plans including a collaborative performance between Dover and pianist Guy Mintus.
For this rendition of “Is This Loss,” Dover chose a much more acoustic framework than the original recording, highlighting the meditative quality inherent to the music. He originally wrote the piece in 2017 as a way of coping with a difficult period of his life; to him, the music is a response to the difficulty that arises when you don’t understand the gravity of losing something until it’s already gone. The choice to perform this piece at this time feels apt—the idea of using art as a way to cope with tragedy is always part of our lives, but now, we find ourselves more than ever before turning to the arts as a space for expression during tragedy. Dover’s emotive music ebbs and flows between melancholy and bright motives, ultimately ending in a reverberant cloud of melodic sound and illuminating the light that exists within darkness. -- Vanessa Ague
Episode: 61Date: October 29, 2020Artist: Mark DoverInstrumentation: Clarinet and KeyboardWork: “Is This Loss"Composer: Mark DoverMore from House Music