Re-evaluating selected clarinet works of Carmelo Pace involving a critical edition

Abstract

The purpose of this dissertation is to provide a study of the life and music of Carmelo Pace (1906-1993), who remains one of the most significant composers of twentieth-century Maltese music. He was one of the first Maltese composers who started to experiment with atonality harmonic language in his works. In addition, during his lifetime he managed to compose more than 500 musical compositions, of various lengths and different genres including operas, symphonies, concertos, choral works and also chamber music. This dissertation outlines Pace’s life, the environment in which he was brought up to and also his early and popular works. Although he is considered as one of the significant composers in Malta, he has received comparatively little attention from scholars. In fact, most of his works are stored and shelved in archives. Throughout this research, a critical edition was done on three selected clarinet works, these being the Orpheus, Scherzo and Andante Espressivo. These three pieces were chosen for different reasons due to their style, instrumental combination and also for the simple reason that there are some parts within the original scores which needed some editing since these were not indicated precisely in the original scores of Pace’s. Furthermore, by writing a critical edition, these works could be revived and performed again in today’s repertoire. A thorough analysis of these three clarinet works was carried out in which musical style and compositional techniques adopted by the composer were investigated.