How Like Pellucid Statues, Daddy. Or Like A...An Engine (score & parts) - 4BSN

How Like Pellucid Statues, Daddy. Or Like A...An Engine
for four bassoons
by John Corigliano (b. 1938) - American composer

In reading John Ashbery's prom, "No longer Very Clear", I was struck by the contrasting imagery in the adjacent phrases "How like pellucid statues, Daddy, Or like a...an engine". The frozen translucent statues seemed to me to be a marvelous foil for the pulsating hot energy of an engine- both images, as soon through the eyes of a child, readily evoked musical ideas. The unique sound of double reeds seemed at once to be the right choice, and fulfilled a desire I have always had to write for multiple bassoons. The work utilizes row techniques, and is in two parts- the first a picture of the frozen pellucid statues, and the second, an aural portrayal of the energy and acceleration in the words, "an engine". 

- John Corigiliano (1994)