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Program Notes
Three Impersonations
by: Evan Ziporyn
(Honshirabe, Pengrangrang Gde, Thum Nyatiti)
In Balinese trance, as in many similar traditions throughout the world, subjects are inhabited by specific people or entities who speak through them. Their voice remains their own, but the words they speak are foreign to them, often in ancient or foreign languages they themselves do not understand. In these pieces the voices of three different cultures - Japanese shakuhachi, Balinese ginoman, and East African nyatiti - speak through the clarinet. As a rational westerner, I've transcribed and translated, found ways to play them, but as a trance subject-wannabe I leave the interpretation to others. --Evan Ziporyn