“Catharsis” for clarinet and string trio is a brief meditation on the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on our culture at large, and of a possible final outcome.
The piece begins “Agitato,” the strings breathlessly busy in tone, the meter of 13 symbolizing an ill fate for the rigid patterns of our society, economics and politics. The clarinet then enters with the five-note “virus theme” (C O V I D = C G F A D) in long notes; this theme sounds innocent at first, reflecting how those who contract the virus experience no symptoms at first. Soon the cello is “infected” with the virus theme, followed by the other strings, whereupon the busy music collapses into chaos.
In the piece’s second section, the repeated-note accompanying motive breaks into spasmodic, irregular patterns, unable to re-establish its former order. The clarinet then loudly declaims the virus theme with wide octave displacements, reflecting how widespread the virus has become. The strings then manifest their infection with a mutated version of the theme, heard in scurrying col legno figures. The clarinet then relentlessly takes up the mutant virus theme, the strings’ mutants multiplying underneath, all growing to a distressed climax.
The serene closing section represents a hopeful outcome: a new, peaceful order, the strings gently overlaying fifths (alluding to the cello’s ascending fifths motive in the first section), over which the clarinet quietly sings the inversion of the virus theme: the antidote has been found.

Timothy Tikker