Ripples for Solo Clarinet (or any instrument) + Digital Delay(1993; 5')
Click button to view or download the score (please let me know if you decide to perform this!)
Ripples was composed in 1993 for friend and Memorial University colleague Paul Bendzsa, who premiered it in January of that year
in St. John's, Newfoundland. It involves the use of “digital delay”, which creates an echo effect, and allows for the creation of a
polyphonic texture when writing for a monophonic instrument, because notes that have just been played continue to echo
while new pitches are heard. The title comes from the image of scattered raindrops creating tiny
ripples on an otherwise smooth surface of water. It's a very simple, atmospheric piece.
©Clark Winslow Ross
[If the music doesn't begin playing automatically after a few seconds, click here]
performed live in concert by Jean-Guy Boisvert in 1996
Note to performer: This works best if the microphone feeding into the Digital Delay picks up the clarinet notes very clearly (possibly a contact mike), and if the signal coming through the Digital Delay to the on stage speakers is loud enough so that the echoes are foreground (like the actual clarinet notes), not background. Set Digital Delay to 2 returns/second (i.e., the tempo of the piece). The decay rate should be relatively low so as to produce a good number (e.g. at least 7-8 for a loud note) of returns.
