Scoring
bass clarinet + tape
Abbreviations (PDF)
Publisher
Boosey & Hawkes
Territory
This work is available from Boosey & Hawkes
for the world.
Availability
World Premiere
31/07/2021
MASS MoCA, North Adams, MA
Ken Thomson, clarinet
Composer's Notes
I wrote Zero at the Bone for Ken Thomson who premiered the work at the Bang on a Can LIVE Online Marathon on June 6, 2021. It was commissioned by Bang on a Can with generous support from Alvin Lucier. It sets a poem by Emily Dickinson, A narrow Fellow in the Grass the last line of which forms the title of this piece. In this poem, Dickinson uses a sudden encounter with a snake to explore the sudden terror of the unknown — an experience that resonates with the COVID-19 pandemic period.
Anna Clyne
Press Quotes
“Anna Clyne’s shadowy Zero at the Bone, with its languid waltz tune, subtly modernized the lieder tradition of classic poetry set to picturesque music.” —New York Classical Review