yashar yeHezu panemo

Adam YEE
Born 1974

yashar yeHezu panemo (1996)

clarinet in C, violin, cornet, violoncello
Commissioned by ELISION Ensemble with the assistance of the Australia Council

yashar yeHezu panemo was written in 1996 and is dedicated to the ELISION ensemble. It is probably the most idealistic piece that I have written. In other words, the final version of this work is still very much aglow with the pure extramusical ideas that were the basis of the text. This has resulted in a somewhat `unmusical' surface, and I am not using this term pejoratively.

At the time of writing I was influenced by the idea that perfection is somehow cognate with the attempt to glimpse the unknowable. The first thirteen seconds of the piece are the clearest example of this principle. "The work is not yours to complete, but neither are you free to desist from it" (Talmud, tractate Avot).

yashar yeHezu panemo is in seven sections being the seven verses of the eleventh psalm. The title, (the concluding words of the psalm) translates, "the righteous shall behold his countenance". The ensemble is divided up according to the psychological programme of the psalm, with the score order representing a continuum of decline from holiness (most clearly associated with the cornet) to wickedness (epitomised by the er-hu).

These competing forces shape the shifting hierarchies that define each section, and are echoed in the harmonic life of the piece (dense cluster-like harmonies contrasted with the more euphonious harmonies associated with holiness  . . .  thanks Messaien). The er-hu is fortunately represented in this performance by an emasculated violin: the violinist is restricted to the er-hu's two strings tuned D and A. That particular instrument choice was, on reflection, somewhat whimsical. But then the cornet and the C clarinet were chosen to be strange cousins to their more standard orchestral counterparts.

Programme note © Adam YEE