Written for solo clarinet in 1996, the work of composer Doina Rotaru, the
Smoke, proposes the illustration of the symbolic element declared in the title by a
particular sonority dependent on a space that implies the presence of another
instrument, the piano, borrowing from the vibration of its resonance assimilating and
absorbing the harmonics. More evident than the piece architecture is the technical
means of sound organization, variation principle prevailing in it and causing a
certain formal circumstance by rhythmical entity around which the mechanisms are
focused. A permanent oscillation between acute and the grave register, rhythmic
oscillation between long and short sounds, the contrast between very small and very
strong colors, the game between vibrato and non-vibrato, frullatto and non-frullatto,
calmo - nervoso - calmo are elements that predominate the whole work, intensifying
the emotional intensity many times as an authentic dirge.