Programme Note Lumina Obscurata ("Eyes that have become dark"), for Clarinet and Piano, is in Rondo form. Unifying the work are two principal ideas: chromatic scale passages in the clarinet and simple two part writing in the piano. The work is dedicated to Karem Simon. After an intense introduction, the Rondo theme is heard in the Clarinet. The first Episode involves polyphonic, interweaving musical lines coupled with a subordinate theme first heard quietly in the left hand of the piano. The second Episide is a fugue based on the inversion of the Rondo Theme. The third Episode presents a dramatic new theme in full octaves in the piano which leads to a final statement of the Rondo theme in the clarinet. The following excerpt, from a letter to a friend by the composer about some recent deaths in his family, offers a comment on the title of the work: "The memories are unbearable. Most of all, I miss the eyes. Thinking of life so brilliantly streaming out of the eyes and then seeing nothing. That is the most frightening thing. Not the lifeless arms or the lack of beating in the breast, but the absence of life in the eyes. I have such an appreciation of life now. Seeing people once so full of life now devoid of it is so hard. The eyes, so bright before, now so viciously dark."

REVIEWS 1. The Performance in Halifax, Nova Scotia, February 9, 1992. The Chronicle Herald, Halifax, Nova Scotia, February 10, 1992: Stephen Pedersen. Michael Parker's Lumina Obscurata for clarinet and piano combined this Newfoundland composer's two most personal stylistic devices - outbursts of passionate declamation in a tidal wave of notes, and combinations of contrapuntal lines in a way that, apart from the melodic curve and vocabulary, is pure Bach. It was an effective piece, beautifully performed by clarinetist Jeff Reilly and pianist Tietje Zonneveld.