Superb Imposition (2010, for amplified Paetzold contrabass recorder) is an investigation into a state of the musical substance based on the impulse to tear off. The impulse is not apparent straightaway. It emerges gradually as a result of dominating tendencies coming from various elements of the sound production, as they attempt to impose their qualities on the musical material. This allows for generating an elaborate musical process based on superimpositions of various elements of articulation. Ultimately, the superbness of the impositions (an innate superbness of the instrument’s natural properties) does not generate any type of attractiveness or stability, but only underlines a resistance to any single dominant sound-type, which expresses itself through a gradually stronger merging of the articulation elements into a pulsating motion.

The work was commissioned by Anna Petrini with support from Kulturkontakt Nord, Sweden.