Cherry Blossom and a Wrapped Thing: After Hokusai was inspired by a print of the same name  by the extraordinary Japanese printmaker known as Hokusai (1760 – 1849). I encountered it in a sumptuous collection of his prints in Tokyo and was immediately struck by the subtle mystery of both its subject matter and execution. The cherry blossom speaks of the beauty and brevity of life; the wrapped thing of its ineffability. My compositional response is scored for amplified clarinet and multichannel audio. The electronics were made from cuttings of a previous piece commissioned by clarinetist F. Gerard Errante, to whom the piece is dedicated. They have been transformed into an entirely different form and take root in new ways, wrapping around the performer and audience, sometimes drifting to earth, sometimes floating above. The sound processing and multi-channel audio path were designed using RTcmix. F. Gerard Errante commissioned the piece for his Delicate Balance CD, available on Aucourant Records. –JS