I. Rages
II. Reflections
Too Upset for Words (2003) for clarinet in Bb, guitar, and piano was commissioned by and is
dedicated to Aris Carastathis and the Lakehead University New Music Ensemble.
The work is cast in two very short movements that use the same basic musical material. The
work contrasts lyrical gestures with ones of extreme violence -- all derived from the same
musical sources.
The first movement, Rages, continually brings back a loud piano crash. Out of the harmonics
of this sound come the clarinet and guitar's material.
The second movement, Reflections, freely explores some of the gestures of the first
movement. The pitches of the musical ideas become deconstructed -- existing only as pitch
entities in a free section.