What have we done with music? We didn’t invent it, but we have certainly messed around with it. Music is a way we have of organizing sound (I owe John Cage a beer); sound is pervasive, even maddeningly so. No wonder humans take stimuli and organize them, visually or sonically, even kinetically, and often all at once.

Such deep thoughts help me cope with my own prejudices, especially my dislikes, when it comes to assessing the discs I have before me. The Dawn of the Bicameral Clarinetist is a survey of works for solo clarinet and electronic media, dating between 1968 and 1979, by composers whose names may be familiar to those who pay attention to this type of art. Comprehensive accompanying notes about performers, composers as well as performance dates, fill out the story. Clarinetist Gary Dranch demonstrates commitment and virtuosity in service of this niche (one decade, all clarinet, plus or minus electronics), or as he puts it, “time capsule.” It’s interesting, even fascinating. My aesthetic sense is rewarded, and my skepticism about the value of such a retrospective is forced to sit in the back and listen.

By preference I gravitate to the traditional form of James Drew’s St. Dennis Variations, the most recent work with the most ancient roots. Dranch is an expressive and able player; these recordings may sound a bit raw but it’s because they were initially recorded live on cassette tape! Talk about ancient.