Composer’s Note:

Writing this work was similar to learning a new language, when it is not unusual to find oneself unable to express even a simple idea; attempting multiple ways of getting the point across with slightly different words or phrases (also called circumlocution or periphrasis). That is precisely how the piece unfolded: as a series of attempts to express something of which I was ultimately unsure.

At the outset the high register is reserved for a syncopated, repeated note motive, the middle for small, isolated leaps and scales, and the low for a murmuring, oscillating figure. Over the course of the work these events are juggled among the clarinet’s registers and the piece becomes more frenetic as it attempts to express its own essence.