Jaquith: Mediation ... Separation ... for clarinet and piano

Code: JP2148
ISMN: 979-0-3019-0420-6

Mediation...Separation... is a work borne from reflections on our relationship with technology. Inspired by Nicholas Carr's book The Glass Cage, it pits our perception of the world, often highly mediated through technology, against the hard, immovable realities of our existence.

To translate these ideas into music, the composer begins with a slow-fast pair that represents reality. Both of these sections are fairly dissonant, but have moments of stark lyricism. Irregular meters such 15/16 and 5/16 are prominently featured, symbolizing the unpredictability, but also the excitement found in nature. The opening pair is then recast, representing 'mediated reality'in another slow-fast pair. The chords are much less dissonant and the angular contours are smoothed. In the slow section of this pair, we hear cliche film-score progressions that emphasize that this is all fantasy. The fast portion begins with a gentle, undulating texture. Although this continues for a while, a sharp burst suddenly intrudes, only to be overtaken by the previous undulating texture. Several other sharp bursts appear, eventually taking over the section, which now takes on the character of reality, using musical ideas from the first fast section. With one final effort however, the harshness of reality is overcome and we return to a peaceful landscape. Once again however, the insistent striking of a dissonant chord overtakes the music and reality, in all of its unpredictable glory overtakes the work and bludgeons us for a few brief moments before the work concludes.

Total duration approximately 10 minutes.

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