Untarnished Lucidity was commissioned by Transient Canvas. It was composed in Brookline, Massachusetts and completed in November of 2011.
Untarnished Lucidity explores the transformations of small grains of nothingness into common musical idioms, however distorted those may turn out to be. Eric Dolphy runs become a Bach toccata, becomes a decadently ornamented Brahms sonata, all the while one instrument wishes to give the other the space and the stage to be true to its nature and idiomatic sound world. Marimba wishes not to Mar the Clarity of the Clarinet. Not to Tarnish its Lucidity. Is this space too much? Have they lost interaction and connection out of respect for one another’s space? Hopefully, the ending will shed light on these questions and lucidity shall prevail.
