Party Lines, for solo clarinet, casts multiple voices within the context of a single line. The title harkens back to the early days of the telephone, when multiple households were often required to share a single “party line.” Here, the “voices” may be differentiated by sudden shifts in the character of the music, or there may be two or three voices speaking in counterpoint with one another, through the use of compound melody. The piece is in two sections, roughly approximating a prelude and a fugue, which are linked via shared melodic material. Party Lines was written in 2012 for clarinetist Pat O’Keefe, who recorded the work at the 2012 Cleveland Composers Recording Institute in Cleveland, Ohio.
Recording: Pat O’Keefe, clarinet; David Yost, recording engineer (Cleveland, Ohio, 2012). Copyright ℗ 2012 by Corey K. Rubin. All rights reserved.
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