Jikan no ningenrashi

for 2 Eb Clarinets and amplified Piano

ca. 7 minutes

2016. Completed in DeLand, FL

Commissioned and premiered by Emily Frier and Elizabeth Morris (Jacob Lyte-Haven on Piano, Anthony Virgilio on Electronics) at Stetson University

For this work I was asked to write something with a Japanese/East Asian influence, while still using Western instruments. I was inspired by a traditionally Japanese view of time, wherein the current moment exists and is surrounded by eternity on all sides. When writing I felt an aesthetic connection to this idea and a feeling of overall insignificance when compared to the grand scale of eternity. Jikan no ningenrashi translates to approximately ‘The Humanity (or Humanness) of Time, and it was this idea of the current moment existing independent of the rest of everything else, similar to how humans can become caught up in something, that I tried to emulate.

This composition was my first attempt at utilizing microtones and aleatoric techniques, as well as using amplification in a concert setting. In addition to the piano being amplified at various levels over the course of the composition, both of the clarinets occasionally place their bells in the piano in order to both create sympathetic resonating of the piano strings, and be picked up by the microphone.

About half way through the piece I begin to quote the traditional Sakura theme as a reference to the eternity and historical tradition of the past several hundred years.

The score can be found here.