Apostrophe 2 (pressing down on my sternum) [2009]

for quarter-tone flugelhorn and alto trombone

duration :: 6’

Commissioned by the ELISION Ensemble

First performance :: ELISION — Iwaki Auditorium (Melbourne, Australia), 28 July 2009

Recording :: ELISION :: HCR HCR03 [ label | amazon | spotify ]

This is an abbreviated, stunted, stifled, altogether more effortful sequel to the sixteen-minute Apostrophe 1 (All communication is a form of complaint) for two bass clarinets (2008).  Apostrophe 2 scavenges most of its pitch, durational, and structural material from its predecessor, but the three smoothly connected sections of Apostrophe 1 are recast as floating islands of forced-out ornament, its prevailing air of lyricism and gentleness replaced by feebleness and strain.  This is an athletic piece, a physical piece, whose discomfort and urgency are evoked by the subtitle; but there is still a kernel of lyricism, of a recognizable relation between ornament and melody, and of a welter of hinted-at canons, near-canons,  and repetitions that attempts to manage the unmanageable whole.