| Instrumentation: | piano, clarinet, cello |
| Duration: | 12'30 |
| Year Composed: | 2006 |
| Movements: |
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I. Allegro (middle)
II. Andante (opening)
A trio for clarinet, cello and piano, the two-movement structure etches an arc from tension and anxiety to calm and serenity. The first movement begins with a brief unmeasured introduction, Free but explosive, in which the clarinet, starting on A-flat, introduces the movement's basic harmonic material, the augmented major-seventh, punctuated by piano chords. The next section, marked Intense and tormented, presents the principal motivic material, descending chromatic lines separated by a leap of a major seventh. This motif is explored in several increasingly agitated waves of development that lead to a central Allegro agitato in which the accumulated tension explodes. The second movement, Andante cantabile, begins with a free canon in the clarinet, and starting on G-sharp, the first movement's tonic enharmonically respelled. The second movement mirrors the first in contour—it picks up in tempo and activity before receding—but, like a soft echo, in a much calmer vein. Its rich contrapuntal unfolding and its more diatonic-leaning harmonies offer relief from the angularity and dissonance of the first movement. The piece ends on an E-major chord, with the G-sharp in the clarinet and in the same register as the very opening note of the piece.
—R.R.
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