Michael Jarrell

Assonance II

This is a tricky exercise, for the performer needs to move forwards as well as backwards, to move to and fro, not really following any path, although he sometimes strays from Assonances, as in Berio's Chemins. Thus it is Assonance which leads to Essaims-Cribles, and it is Assonance which multiplies there, using the logic of the swarm ('essaim') and the beehive. After this, however, he reduces it, taking away the instrumental ensemble so that only the solo part, the bass clarinet, remains, following on this occasion the logic of withdrawal, the typewriter where the other hand is removed. This time, it is Assonance II that remains. In this 'split-level' land the performer moves from one to the other (from I to II) by a detour, by taking the way behind a sceen. Here the path is to be found - here, composing means recomposing (start again).Peter Szendy, translated by Mary Criswick