lens:Focus

for clarinet(=bass clarinet), cello and percussion
June 2009; 6’30”



Premiere: The Chimera Ensemble, York Concert Series, 11th December 2009.
2nd performance: The Chimera Ensemble, on tour at University of Heidelberg, July 2011.

In looking through a window, one sees not only the object immediately on the other side, but a reflection of oneself in the glass, and one is also aware of the glass itself having its own substance as an object.

In this piece, two strands of thematic material which are connected to the clarinet and cello have been distorted and fragmented (A and B), and through a succession of episodes these instruments each attempt to focus their material into its original form. Behind them, a third force is at work offsetting their efforts, in the percussion and its associate C material, confusing the material between the others, and a struggle of superiority between A and B leads each time to further distortion. At last, once C has been unmasked, a true vision of both sets of material is reached at the piece’s climax. However, A and B are now intrinsically linked by C, and the piece ends suddenly and bathetically, reflecting its beginning – an attempt to focus through either lens has resulted in a lack of definition beyond it.