Unsuk Chin - Advice From a Caterpillar for Solo Bass Clarinet

Описание

Advice From a Caterpillar (2007) by Unsuk Chin (b.1961)

Ben Taylor, bass clarinet

Performed as part of the University of Michigan's Contemporary Directions Ensemble, led by conductor Jayce Ogren, on October 22nd, 2023.

Advice from a Caterpillar for Solo Bass Clarinet is derived from Interlude I of the opera 'Alice in Wonderland.' The libretto was written by Unsuk Chin and her colleague David Henry Hwang, and was based off of the original books 'Alice in Wonderland' and 'Through the Looking Glass' by Lewis Carroll. The bass clarinet represents the caterpillar and his dialogue with Alice. The libretto text that accompanies the solo:

Who are you?
Not to know is quite fine.
Certainty is a crime.
Who are you? Who are you?

All my life, I will change.
Why do you find that strange?
Who are you? Who are you?

So you ask who I am?
And to that, I ask 'why?'
Who are you? Who are you?

Come back here, now, today!
It's important, I say: 'neath your dress, neath your bloomers.
You must search for tumors.
Who are you? Who are you?

Don't forget: Keep your temper
or you'll never remember.
Think too hard and you will explode,
then your scalp will hit the road
and be eaten by a toad.
Who are you? Who are you?

To live, you surmise,
is to go on changing size.
No corset can contain,
though they will provide some pain,
all the swelling and the bloat
of your fleshy overcoat.

Then you'll shrink another night,
and become a parasite,
squiggling, squirming through the mud
in your search for fresh blood.
Who are you?

One side will make you grow taller,
the other side will make you grow smaller.