personæ (2009)
(for bass flute and bass clarinet)

personæ ('masks' or 'identities', from the Latin 'persõna') was written in close collaboration with its dedicatees, Liz Hirst and Andrea Nagy. In this short piece, gradual transitions from air to pitch articulate a nearly static harmonic structure. Small glissandi and subtle sung pitches cause this structure to gently pulsate. The usual demarcations between voice, instrumental sound, breath, and silence are at times so elided that they verge on imperceptibility. Instead of clear demarcations, the focus is on instability and interstitial states. On this flickering, constantly shifting basis, the question arises: What does identity mean when two (or more) 'personæ' can lose themselves inside one another?

Mark Barden