This past spring, Jean Kopperud and Tom Kolor toured a work that I composed for them: Twin Suspension. Jean and Tom wanted a virtuosic work that was a bit out of the box. Instead of focusing on something loud and flashy, I wrote a somewhat quiet work with three aspects: smooth, floating perpetual motion, highly resonant and expansive gestures and sharp, percussive attacks. The piece explores the quiet and delicate sides of these three aspects.
The title of the work comes from the idea that clarinet and percussion can be twins; can take on each others’ roles and play against each other as well as with each other. In addition, the clarinet also has a twin in the bass clarinet, and the percussive twins of the vibraphone and marimba are complemented with various unpitched percussion. So while I explore three musical concepts, I do this through using sets of twos, or twins.
Below is a live recording from one of their performances.
John Aylward 