Composer Elena Sokolovski owns four pieces for two clarinets (A) called "Temperaments" (according to the classification of Hippocrates). These pieces were written back in her youthful conservatory years, when Elena was fond of studying various composing techniques of the 20th century, including the dodecaphony system and studied the course of polyphony. The plays of the young composer could have remained only a "test of the pen", a solution to various technical problems, but the result turned out to be high and successful. Evidence of this was the repeated performances of the suite by student clarinetists in the classroom and at concerts by young composers.
The fact is that each piece reflects the special character of this or that temperament and at the same time specific means of serial technology are used in combination with polyphonic devices, genre brightness and the laws of formation.
So, play No. 1 – "Nervous Choleric" – is a very internally contrasting scherzo: the author uses musical means to depict constant mood swings, where jerky intonations and disturbing sounds develop into "hysteria". The play itself takes on a peculiar two-part form.
Piece No. 2, "Focused Phlegmatic", depicts the image of a "serious" polyphonist immersed in the composition of a fugue. The theme of the fugue is a series, and its carrying out experiencing various modifications (increase, decrease, counter movement). A good find of the author is the gruppetto at the beginning of the theme, which breaks the seriality and at the same time introduces some "romantic" traits into the fugue, thus creating a humorous shade.
The third piece – "Dull Melancholiаc" – is built in the form of variations from several numbers per series, sounding simultaneously from two clarinets. Thus, there is no monophonic theme as such in this work; it starts immediately with a two-voice sound. The author gives it an additional name "Variations without a theme". The composer skillfully presents the image of a sad person who either whimpers, or cries, or complains. The technique of the clarinet Glissando is used very well: the first time it is quasi Glissando, and the second time it is Glissando with a strong inclination of the musician's torso forward.
The suite ends with the piece "Lyrical Sanguine", serial technique is also used here, but fragmentary. Thus, polystylistic tendencies are clearly traced in this piece. They consist in a combination of seriality and non-seriality: certain non-serial fragments of the piece are atonal, but serial fragments are just tonal. This is for the middle section. In it, the serial theme is built on seventh chords, and most importantly, in addition to its tonal presentation, it has bright melodic intonations of a wide cantilena plan. The middle part of the piece has a clear three-part form. This is also reflected in the musical notation: its first and final sections are written in ametric form, that is, without time signature and without barlines (the same musical notation is used in the three previous pieces), but the middle section has a time signature and barlines. This form of recording is the discovery of a young composer who already in his early opuses showed himself to be an interesting and thoughtful musician. This was discussed by such masters of the Russian composer school as professors of the Moscow Conservatory Edison Denisov, Roman Ledenev and Yuri Butsko.