What happens when a very hungry, extremely absent-minded and very short-sighted spectacle cobra loses her glasses – which she is unable to find without her spectacles on – and in her search for something edible discovers the end of her own tail? Wilfried Hiller’s Diminuendo provides the astonishingly simple answer: she eats herself, piece by piece, until she ultimately disappears completely. Die zerstreute Brillenschlange (The Absent-minded Spectacle Cobra) is a challenging show piece for the clarinettist and this work would be ideal for a both entertaining and exciting introduction to this instrument within the framework of game activities, theatre festivals and educational orchestral projects.