Guest
Animus III, for clarinet and tape (1969) Arthur Bloom, clarinet The genesis of Animus III began with my asking Arthur Bloom to record some clarinet sounds as sources from which I could build the tape part of the work. The recording session was late at night. We worked efficiently and informally as we are good friends and colleagues of many years standing. The tape of that session contained not only the brilliant clarinet sounds of this extraordinary musician, but also the vocal sounds of the session--the laughter, the banter, the irritation, the fatigue, the impatience. Over all this fluttered the ephemeral virtuosity-untouched, uncommitted, disassociated from the human dynamic. As I worked with the tape in the following months, I found myself more and more fascinated with the recorded sounds of the irrational dynamic. These sounds began to shape the image of the work as strongly as the instrumental material from which, I believe, they are eventually inseparable. The completed work assum
