For
Reed Quintet (Sax, Ob, Cl, B Cl, Bsn)
Program Note
Smearing the Ink is, at least in part, a study of clarity (or lack thereof). I’ve found that I’ve been obsessing a lot lately over clarity in music: clarity of orchestration, clarity of notation, clarity of attacks and releases . . . the list goes on. I imagined what it would be like to write a piece where instead of writing some perfect, concise, clean object, I let the ink smudge and smear to create fuzzy boundaries and lines.
Smearing the Ink was commissioned by Detroit Chamber Winds and Strings for Novus Reed Quintet. The composer wishes to express a deep gratitude to the performers for their insight and collaborative spirit.