Rane Moore - Marti Epstein: Nebraska Impromptu (2022)

Marti Epstein’s music makes space for contemplation — of gestures, components of the musical fabric, harmonies, and timbres. Influenced but not at all restricted by alternate approaches to structure in the music of Morton Feldman, Toru Takemitsu, and Anton Webern, Epstein patiently examines musical ideas, deconstructing them as a way to consider them from all angles. This collection of music highlights instrumentations that include clarinet, and also shines light on Epstein’s penchant for expansive textures that are shaped by her childhood in the Great Plains. Nebraska Impromptu features Boston based Winsor Music and their clarinetist Rane Moore.

The recording opens with Oil & Sugar, an impressionistic quartet for clarinet, flute, violin, and piano that is inspired by a video by French conceptual artist Kader Attia. In the video, motor oil is poured over large blocks of sugar cubes, a process that is counter-intuitively depicted with graceful sensuality, mirrored in Epstein’s flowing score, despite the resultant chemical destruction that the oil wreaks on the sugar. Watery piano chords support interwoven melodic figures that form momentary harmonic areas.

In its opening section, Liquid, Fragile for clarinet and string trio presents lyrical, Americana fragments separated by extended rests. By interrupting these poignant gestures, Epstein establishes an expressive expectation and consistently breaks it, as if to pause and consider the emotional association of the Coplandesque music from a momentary distance. Preserving the construct of presenting islands of material separated by rests, Epstein turns to abstract gestures midway through the piece, focusing on ascending glissandi, swelled chords, and later pizzicati.