Still Voices - Unaccompanied Bb Clarinet

For solo unaccompanied B flat Clarinet solo.

First Prize, "Premio Ancona", Ancona, Italy, 1983.

First Prize, American New Music Consortium Competition, 1985.

"Still Voices" is, amongst other things, a dialogue between registers of the clarinet. For this purpose, the clarinet is treated, at times, as two instruments. The throat tones should be allowed to project their distinctive timbral quality as the 'high end' of the lower instrument; the upper register will sound, by comparison much more "pure".

The multiphonics function as a "unification" of the two registers. Some players may find the multiphonics difficult or uncontrollable at first, but with practice and appropriate reed selection, they are quite reliable. In general, a certain amount of temporal leeway is allowed where a multiphonics is called for. The player should take expressive advantage of this freedom. The multiphonics should, in general, by played very softly. In general, the piece depends upon the use of a very wide dynamic range.

The title comes from many disparte sources. ...Two lines are sometimes begun and only one completed... The clarinet was the composer's first instrument and he continues to hear it, sometimes, as his original musical 'voice'... This piece is written in memorium Dorothy B. Jones and Douglas Blumenstock.