On the Tip of my Tongue (1993)
for bass clarinet, synthesizer
By Eric Moe
American
American
On the Tip of My Tongue was written for bass clarinetist Tim Smith, whose playing I have found profoundly inspiring over the years. The synthesizer part makes economical use of one kind of digital sound generation (FM synthesis) to evoke real-world sounds rather than reproduce them. On the Tip of My Tongue is a set of four studies, each of which dynamically explores one type of partnership between bass clarinet and synthesizer.? A common language or shared vocabulary often proves to be elusive, hence the title. The last movement is perhaps the most extreme example:? an inflexible, timbrally monochromatic, rigorously constructed and notated synth part is met by an almost totally free and improvised commentary from the bass clarinet.? This piece pays obvious homage, in rhythmic feel and timbre, to West African drumming.
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Other works by Eric Moe:
“[W]e are modern by the very simple fact that we live in the present. Nobody has yet discovered the art of living in the past, and not even the futurists have discovered the secret of living in the future. We are modern whether we want to be or not.”
--Jorge Luis Borges