Instrumentation: clarinet, shakuhachi (3.6)

Duration: 10 minutes

Year composed: 2020

First performance:  Thomas Piercy (clarinet), Hideyuki Tsuchiya (shakuhachi), Tokyo to New York, Moments in This Time, online, November 21st 2020

Other performances: Thomas Piercy (clarinet), Hideyuki Tsuchiya (shakuhachi), The Arc Project Online Festival, Tokyo to New York, online, December 15th 2021

Thomas Piercy (clarinet), Hideyuki Tsuchiya (shakuhachi), Museum of Boulder, Colorado, (CO), January 2-6th 2022

Program note: La cage sombre des lucioles is taken from the French translation of Takako Hashimoto’s haïku. The clarinet and shakuhachi represent the contradiction between the darkness of a closed space and the freedom and light of the « lucioles » (fireflies). They emancipate themselves from being enclosed in a register and fixed set of pitches through reserved microtonality and bursts of light.

The piece is warmly dedicated to Thomas Piercy and Hideyuki Tsuchiya.