By Luna Pearl Woolf | For Clarinet and Cello | 10′

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From the composer:

Ten Images: Gifts in Miniature for Deborah Sherr

Ten Images was commissioned by Bill Feinstein as a birthday gift for cellist and educator Deborah Sherr.  At a private celebration in her honor in May 2001, Ten Images was given its first hearing by clarinetist Michael Sussman and cellist Matt Haimovitz, who later premiered the piece publicly.

Ten Images is made up of ten short pieces, ranging from 30 seconds to 2 minutes in length.  Each miniature captures a musical idea, their sequence characterized by contrast.  The clarinet and cello lend by turns support and counterpoint, blending voice or solo declamation to the musical image. The motivation for each movement is articulated with a descriptive tempo marking:

1. Aggressive
2. Elegant
3. Suspended
4. Unbalanced
5. Agitated
6. Mysterious
7. Stilted
8. Anticipating
9. Smooth, elastic
10. Finale, hypnotized

The work’s dedication figures in the finale to the set, in which one can hear a musically spelled setting, first stated boldly, then spun out in idiomatic motifs, of the name, Deb Sherr.

“Ten Images,” by Luna Pearl Woolf, was the evening’s outlier: the miniatures for clarinet (Eran Egozy) and cello (Bolkosky) slipped in and out of tradition, distilling common musical tropes (a curl of waltz, a gruff report of Beethovenian octaves, a cat-and-mouse motivic chase), translating them into chromatic piquancy — an inoculation, perhaps, against cliché.

– the Boston Globe

Commission/Dedication: Commissioned by Bill Feinstein.
Premiere: First performed in May 2001 in a private performance, by Michael Sussman and Matt Haimovitz.