Louis Karchin

Clarinet and Percussion

Composer's Note:

Evocations was composed for two long-time colleagues, clarinetist Jean Kopperud and percussionist Tom Kolor, for a set of performances and a recording on Jean Kopperud's "Extreme Measures" series on Albany Records. I had written an earlier work, Rustic Dances, for a similar combination of instruments (violin, clarinet and marimba), and some of the spritely energy of that piece carried over into this one. In the case of Evocations, dance-like gestures are more veiled and illusive at the outset, but give way to overt expression in the work's middle section in the form of three set-pieces: 'Rustic Dance," Gavotte,' and "Burlesque'. Another aspect of the music is the blending of tonal and atonal figuration---a technique I've explored elsewhere--but it seemed particularly apt here in support of the buoyant gestures.