Music by
DANIEL DORFF
PROGRAM NOTES & REVIEWS
Cosmic Menagerie for Two Bass Clarinets
Duration: c. 21'

for my children
Julia Mieko Dorff (Rabbit)
Michael Shun Takahira Dorff (Snake)

Commissioned by and dedicated to my dear friends, Morii Duo,
Richard Ferrarelli (Dog) and Lindsey Hutchinson (Snake)

Program Listing:
PART I
The Year of the Rooster
The Year of the Wild Boar
The Year of the Dragon
PART II - Scherzo
The Year of the Monkey (self-portrait)
The Year of the Cute Little Mice
The Year of the Dog
Bunnies!
PART III
The Year of the Snake
The Year of the Sheep (lullaby & variations)
PART IV
The Year of the Ox
The Year of the Tiger
The Year of the Horse

DETAILS
PREMIERED by the Morii Duo (Richard Ferrarelli and Lindsey Hutchinson) at the ICA Low Clarinet Festival, Glendale AZ, January 9, 2025.
AVAILABLE from your favorite sheet music dealer, or direct from Presser.  

YOUTUBE by Morii Duo of selected movements.

PROGRAM NOTES
Although composed in 2024, COSMIC MENAGERIE has been brewing since 1998 when I visited the Taiwan Palace Museum and experienced hundreds of individualistic renderings of the Chinese Zodiac cycle. These inspiring 12-part collections represent the disciplines and the imaginations of artists over thousands of years, in every imaginable medium and style, with countless unique variants representing each artist's own expression.

I've wanted to celebrate this exuberant tradition for the past 25 years and hadn't found the perfect vehicle until Morii Duo asked me to write them a new piece. The remarkable range in textures, dynamics, and registers of bass clarinet, the sonorities they create when played in tandem, and above all the gleeful exuberance of Lindsey and Rick, all came together to inspire COSMIC MENAGERIE.

- Daniel Dorff (Monkey)
 

last updated May 7, 2026
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