Abyss of Birds

This movement was written first of the eight and it is the one I performed in Atlanta. It is solo clarinet, very demanding with many long sustained notes weaving the wings of liberation. I wanted something simple to compliment the demands of the clarinetist. Something with the feeling of caligraphy and it's delicate brush strokes. I wanted the figure to spend as much time on the ground as in the clouds, human by choice, divine by nature. Images of chicks breaking out of their shells rose in my awareness as I moved through the themes and worked with the costume elements. There was a sense of nesting dolls, decreasing in size as each is opened. Except this had a sense of the innermost doll breaking through each outer doll and expanding, merging with the larger one each time there was a break through...Like moving through the layers of one's energy field. To a higher frequency or way of being in the world, or a larger world. An expanded sense of awareness/consciousness. Composer's notes: "Unaccompanied clarinet. The abyss is Time, with it's dreariness and gloom. The birds are the opposite of Time; they represent our longing for light, for stars, for rainbows, and for jubilant song!"