Ann Cleare

for cello and piano

or for viola and piano or for violin and piano

Inner probes the idea of a subcutaneous space within sound. Through its kinetic activity and autoscopic tendencies, the piece aims to explore internal structures of sound and turn them outward: isolating, focusing on, and revealing sounds in their time and space. The piano and cello are dependent on each other to function. They alternate the roles of what is considered interior and exterior: within harsh timbral worlds there are intricate, smaller worlds at work, and within large delicate worlds, harsh inner worlds exist. Inner worlds grow, escape, separate from, and intrude on, the outer world. Outer worlds encompass, surround, protect, support and dissolve into inner worlds.

Internal structures and infolded idiosyncrasies are revealed: what was inward is forced outward, the internal is given a multidimensional quality, fragmenting the outer surface, revealing and unleashing the subcutaneous.

“In escaping, the body discovers the materiality of which it is composed, the pure presence of which it is made, and which it would not discover otherwise… “ Deleuze, The Logic of Sensation

Watch a performance of the piece, performed by hand werk, Claudia Chan – piano,  Niklas Seidl – cello: 

Look at an excerpt and purchase the score from PSNY: https://www.eamdc.com/psny/composers/ann-cleare/works/inner/