4 Impersonations - Soprano Clarinet Unaccompanied

Solo clarinet
Honshirabe (4:00) Bindu Semara (5:30) Thum Nyatiti (2:30) Pengrangrang Gede (5:30)

Four Impersonations consists of four movements, all based closely on careful transcriptions of melodies from other cultures. Each requires a few particular extended techniques, all explained in the preparatory notes to each movement. It was completed in 2000, and is recorded on This Is Not A Clarinet (Cantaloupe 21002).

Program notes by the composer:
In Balinese trance, as in many similar traditions throughout the world, subjects are inhabited by specific people or entities who speak through them. Their voice remains their own, but the words they speak are foreign to them, often in ancient or foreign languages they themselves do not understand. In these pieces the voices of three different cultures - Japanese shakuhachi ("Honshirabe"), Balinese gamelan ("Pengrangrang Gde" and “Bindu Semara”), and East African nyatiti ("Thum Nyatiti") - speak through the clarinet. As a rational westerner, I've transcribed and translated, found ways to play them, but as a trance subject-wannabe I leave the interpretation to others.