clarinet quartet (E♭, 2 B♭, bass)
Composed 2010, duration 1’00”
Dedicated to the New Zealand Clarinet Quartet.
Performance by the New Zealand Clarinet Quartet, March 2010:
How can spiny animals get close to each other?
The image comes from the philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer, who uses it to illustrate a point about human relationships. (It probably applies less accurately to actual hedgehogs.) By way of a creative misunderstanding
, there is a link to the inherent fragility of the sound materials, which nonetheless are formed into composite timbres.