Apostrophe (2020)
For solo clarinet
Duration: 5 minutes
Written for Alexandrea M Rakowski
World premiere: August 19, 2021
Virtual YouTube event
Gregory Oakes, clarinet
This work is available for retail purchase from Theodore Front Musical Literature.
This work is available for institutional purchase from Harrassowitz (OttoEditions) and Theodore Front Musical Literature.
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I wrote this work for clarinetist and conductor Alexandrea M Rakowski early during the 2020 pandemic quarantine. She was interested in exploring the wide range of character that the clarinet is able to embody, and I suggested the idea of a piece that follows an imagined dialogue between two characters, almost a play without words. We were able to find a path into this idea that resonated on very personal levels, and this became the basis for the piece. One of the two characters is barely there—his dynamic is usually at ppp, rising only sightly when he’s able to break free from his circular patterns, particularly towards the end. The other character is far more present and exhuberant, able to explore a full dynamic range and be playful and spontaneous.