Cosmic Menagerie

Description

Bass Clarinet 1, Bass Clarinet 2 — Although composed in 2024, COSMIC MENAGERIE has been brewing since 1998 when I visited the Taiwan Palace Museum and experienced hundreds of individualistic renderings of the Chinese Zodiac cycle. These inspiring 12-part collections represent the disciplines and imaginations of artists over thousands of years, in every imaginable medium and style, with countless unique variants representing each artist’s own expression. I’ve wanted to celebrate this exuberant tradition for the past 25 years, for my children Julia Mieko Dorff (Rabbit)and Michael Shun Takahira Dorff (Snake), and hadn’t found the perfect vehicle until Morii Duo asked me to write them a new piece. The remarkable range in textures, dynamics, and registers of bass clarinet, the sonorities they create when played in tandem, and above all the gleeful exuberance of Lindsey and Rick, all came together to inspire COSMIC MENAGERIE. From the composer of In A Deep Funk, COSMIC MENAGERIE is a complete zodiac cycle with its 12 portraits distributed across four movements. Taking full advantage of the bass clarinet duo’s tremendous contrasts of range, dynamics, and texture, Dorff’s settings of the 12 animals of the Chinese zodiac include caricatures of family and friends (plus a self-portrait), a 4-year scherzo, and overall pacing to create an epic and entertaining showcase for bass clarinetists. Each of the four movements has its own character and may be performed separately.Performances of selected segments may be heard at www.youtube.com/watch?v=CQPyc4i0Ens