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La Joie (the joy) for clarinet trio was commissioned by clarinetists Larry Combs, John Bruce Yeh from the CSO and Depaul University clarinet professor Julie DeRoche in the spring of 1996. La Joie is named for and is dedicated to my wife, soul mate and inspiration Mary Ann La Joie in celebration of our 25th Anniversary and was premiered by Mr. Combs, Yeh and Ms. DeRoche at the la Cite Musique in July 1996 in Paris. The musical material of La Joie began life as The Brides Complaint, a 1987 composition for soprano and computer generated electronics and is in keeping with my compositional ideal of using a single musical idea (sound object); portraying it in many versions and contexts without revealing its evolution from one state to another. Using the same compositional techniques I have used in other works, I sought to create a more lyrical expression befitting a love song. The entire work is based upon a sound object made up of five pitches. This object is continuously manipulated to generate melodic, harmonic and timbral material. |