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Tephillah (1990) for Clarinet and Computer Controlled Digital Audio Processors, was commissioned in the winter of 1990 by Yamaha Corporation of American, Musical Instrument Division at the request of Chicago Symphony Clarinetist, John Bruce Yeh. Loosely based upon Hebrew liturgical chant, Tephillah owes its inspiration to the style and character of Eastern European Jews at prayer. The work could best be described as an abstraction of the seemingly disordered and spontaneous manner in which a service is conducted by Orthodox Jewish men of the Ashkenazic tradition. The word, Tephillah, is Hebrew for prayer. The work consists of three movements which are performed without pause. Movement I is a declaration of the material. Movement II is styled like a cadenza. Movement III is also declarative in character using more robust versions of the opening sound objects. The construction and material of Tephillah is consistent with my aesthetic goal of using static sound objects that, rather than develop, are varied by their continually changing association with other sound objects. The audio processing system consists of digital delay, reverberation and mixing systems which are controlled in real- time by a micrprocessor and the Musical Instrument Digital Interface. These systems are manipulated by a second performer who essentially "plays" the sound of the live clarinet. The combination of clarinet and audio processing exists as a single instrument rather than the more traditional approach of duet between the acoustic and electronic instruments. The work is dedicated to the memory of my maternal grandfather, Henry (Henoch) Faber. |