Clarinet

unaccompanied

Josh Oxford writes, “When I was in elementary school, I was a big fan of the television show Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers. Part of the show’s theme (‘Go go power rangers’) is embedded a few times in the piece and serves as the basis for a lot of the material. The piece prominently features the blues scale and the octatonic scale, often seamlessly moving from one scale to the other.”

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"Brom Bones" for clarinet choir (1 Eb, 3 Bb, 2 Eb Alto, 2 Bb Bass, and 1 Bb Contrabass) musically depicts the character and exploits of Washington Irving’s dashing prankster in "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow." The work is in 5 movements: Following the energetic and heroic "Overture", in "The Smoke Out" tone clusters represent the buildup of smoke in Ichabod’s singing school. Chorale-like passages suggest the music of the singers in training. The movement ends in transition, as Brom Bones and his small band of pranksters gallop off to their next adventure. The third movement, "The Schoolhouse Caper," combines very aggressive and topsy-turvy passages with humorous, plodding interjections. "Ichabod’s Romance" begins as an enchanting unaccompanied ballad, which is abruptly disturbed by a cacophony of raucous clarinets, suggesting the whining of Brom’s mocking dog. Reverent hymn-like sections serve as the backdrop to heartfelt solo passages, which are again disturbed by Brom’s annoying dog. The movement ends as it began, with the beautiful bass clarinet solo. The intense final movement, "Night Encounter," depicts Ichabod’s frightening and fateful run-in with the Headless Horseman, suspected by some to be Brom Bones in disguise. Learn More

3 Clarinets and Bass Clarinet Learn More

A tribute to St. Francis of Assisi, the venerated Catholic friar, preacher, founder of several Orders, and lover of animals and the environment. Canticles is in 4 movements, Prelude, Worldly Pleasures, Meditation, and A Blessed Legacy. It showcases the sonic beauty and technically agility of the clarinet. The character of the music ranges from soulful introspection to worldly exuberance. At the opening of the first movement and near the close of the last, sounds a four-note melodic fragment, G, F, D, and B, which is derived from St. Francis’ name at birth, Giovanni Francesco di Bernadone. This device is used sparingly so that when it does appear, it is given special prominence. Canticles of Saint Francis was composed during the autumn of 2012 and was commissioned by clarinetist Kathleen Jones for ClarinetFest 2013 in Assisi, Italy. Learn More

CANZONA by Florentio Maschera (1540-1584) transcribed by Howard J. Buss. This late Renaissance work is written in a stirring imitative style and makes a memorable feature number for a recital as well as a wonderful musical offering in church. On the Ohio Contest List Class B - 1013500 Learn More

with Piano

Capriccio sull’ Opera Foscari is Giuseppe Cappelli’s fantasy on themes from Giuseppe Verdi’s (1813-1901) opera I due Foscari, a three-act lyric opera set to a libretto by Franceso Maria Piave and adapted from Lord Bryon’s five-act play The Two Foscari. The first performance took place on November 3, 1844, a the Teatro Argentina in Rome.

Il due Foscari takes place in 15-th century Venice. The two Foscari are the city’s Doge, Francesco, and his son, Jacopo, who has just returned from exile for a murder he did not commit. He has been brought back to Venice to stand trial for treason, a crime for which he is also innocent. Since Venice has come under the power of the corrupt I Dieci (The Council of Ten), neither the pleas of the powerful Doge nor his wife, Lucrezia, can save him. Jacopo is found guilty and dies on the ship as it leaves to take him to exile. His father is forced to step down as Doge and, realizing that his life is almost over, falls to the ground and dies.

Opening music from Giuseppe Capelli’s Capriccio comes from the agitated string tutti of Act I, Scene 2, interspersed with cadenzas in the Eb clarinet. At measure 9, the Eb clarinet solo is a direct statement of Lucrezia’s plea to God for comfort, Ah, si confronto ai miseri! Lucrezia’s aria at bar 18, Tu pur lo sai, occurs in the Finale to Act I. Here she pleads with the Doge to do something to stop her beloved Jacopo from being condemned. His impassioned reply at bar 35, Oltre ogni umano cedere, begs her to console him in his misery for there is nothing he can do. Their duet from bar 50 concludes the andante section with Lucrezia’s role played by the E-flat clarinet and the piano contributing the voice of the Doge. Closing music to Cappelli’s Capriccio is a large choral number taken from Act III, Scene 1 where the piano is the voice of Jacopo as he bids farewell to his wife and father. The work concludes with original music by Cappelli.

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3 Clarinets, Alto Clarinet, Bass Clarinet and Contrabass Clarinet Learn More

3 Clarinets and Bass Clarinet

This work by Italian composer Sergio Brusca, entitled Chanson ’98, is a lively and quick Clarinet Quartet in Swing Tempo. It features syncopated rhythmic figures throughout and contains a lengthy and technically challenging solo for the first clarinet.

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3 Clarinets and Bass Clarinet (alternate Alto Clarinet included for Clarinet 3) Learn More

3 Clarinets and Bass Clarinet (alternate Alto Clarinet included for Clarinet 3) Learn More

with Piano

Slow jazz…. What musical language could celebrate more appropriately the lyrical, sensuous, expressive character of the clarinet? The three Chocolates, in this version for clarinet and piano, are torch songs in the tradition of the passionate, tuneful ballads of the American ‘40s and ‘50s.

Originally composed for viola, the first two Chocolates, “Valentine” and “Bittersweet,” offer soulful narratives that speak to devotion, poignancy, romance, uncertainty, longing. The third Chocolate, “Triple Mocha Indulgence,” is slightly less soul-searching, more ebullient, and progressively becomes animated (a sugar high, perhaps?) right up to its raucous close.

Chocolates was commissioned and premiered in 1998 by violist Michelle LaCourse, to whom this music is dedicated.

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"CITYSCAPES for clarinet choir (Eb clarinet, 3 Bb clarinets, bass clarinet (or Bb clarinet 4), and contra alto clarinet (or bass clarinet 2) was commissioned by the Chattanooga Clarinet Choir to be performed at ClarinetFest 2014, this picturesque 5-movement composition was inspired by typical city scenes: ""Morning Traffic"", ""Riverfront"", ""A Walk in the Park"", ""Skyline at Sunset"", and ""Night Life""." Learn More

E-flat Clarinet, 3 B-flat Clarinets, 2 Bass Clarinets and Contrabass Clarinet

From the composer:

Claremont Suite was composed for the 2011 Claremont Clarinet Festival, where I was Composer-in-Residence, and premiered by the festival’s clarinet choir. The content of the work is somewhat unusual in that each of the three movements is an arrangement of a composition I had written previously for other ensembles. Though these pieces were not originally intended to be performed together, I thought that they would make a nice little suite arranged for clarinet choir. The first movement is an arrangement of a wind octet I wrote earlier in 2011 (2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 2 horns), which was composed as a companion piece to Mozart’s C minor Wind Serenade. I sought in this work to combine the clarity, resonance, and sense of drama that characterizes Mozart’s “Serenade” with my own expanded harmonic palette and driving rhythms. Movements 2 and 3 are arrangements of tunes I originally wrote for a band that I used to play in called Zoyres. The word “zoyres” comes from a Yiddish word meaning “fermented vegetables,” and the idea of the band was to take traditional tunes from Eastern Europe and the Balkans, and “ferment” them in the culture of the San Francisco Bay Area to create tasty hybrids of folk, klezmer, rock, jazz and avant-garde improvisation. It was challenging but also a lot of fun to take these tunes, both of which have very free, improvisatory sections, and arrange them into fully notated music for clarinet choir. The resulting three-movement suite takes full advantage of the vast range of colors and characters that the clarinet choir can produce, ranging from the thick chords of the opening to the jazz and klezmer riffs of the second movement, to the driving dance rhythms and virtuosic runs of the final movement.

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Composed in 1918, this dixieland jazz standard comes to life for Clarinet Trio (2 Clarinets and Bass Clarinet). Learn More

Composed in 1918, this dixieland jazz standard comes to life for Clarinet Ensemble (4 Clarinets and Bass Clarinet). Learn More

3 Clarinets and Bass Clarinet

One of the big reasons why I started working on this piece was to add another large-scale quartet into the rather limited repertoire. The main programmatic element was inspired by a work of fiction centering on a character’s travels from Ireland to America. The biggest focus of the work is leaving a place of comfort, arriving at a place of chaos, then finding comfort in that chaos. I used specific places as reference points to make the narrative feel more ‘real’ to myself and hopefully an audience as well.

1. On Raghtin More: Raghtin More is a mountain in northern Ireland which represents everything that the central figure of the story desires. Simplicity, tranquility, silence. However, in this instance, this perfect setting is merely a dream, which ends up being clouded by images of past inner-turmoil and negative experiences. The movement ends with the main character waking up, realizing he is on a flight to America, where he fears he won’t be able to experience the silence he once felt.

2. In New Jersey: the character finds himself thrust into a startling and completely foreign situation. The sounds of angry car horns and the chaos of rushing people are all new to him, and he has major issues trying to adjust. Coupled with frequent reminders of past memories, the character falls into a downward spiral that can only be terminated through the love and guidance of others.

3. And One With Me: In this movement, the character finds peace within himself, even though he is still confronted by chaos and negative thoughts. This movement is also reminiscent of a love song: either in the context of romantic love, as well as spiritual love and love of the self.

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E-Flat Clarinet, 3 Clarinets, Alto Clarinet, Bass Clarinet, Contralto Clarinet and Contrabass Clarinet

Commissioned by the Central Oklahoma Clarinet Choir, Jennifer Rucker, Director Learn More

Dramatic tension permeates this work as the solitary clarinet is pitted against the potentially explosive and overpowering might of the percussion ensemble.The state of fragile coexistence between the clarinetist and the percussionists at times requires the conductor to function as a “referee” in order to preserve the dynamic balance. The most theatrical example of this occurs about midway through the composition. At this point the music builds to a deafening, chaotic fury during which the clarinetist has no chance of being heard. The director restores order by “disciplining” the percussionists with a piercing blast on a police whistle. In contrast, Coexistence contains sections of relatively low intensity with delicate coloristic shadings and intricate ensemble coordination. Timbral modulations figure prominently throughout the work. Percussion distribution: Percussion 1: Xylophone, chimes (tubular bells), orchestra bells, 4 tom toms, sizzle cymbal, tam-tam, triangle and wind chimes; Percussion 2: Vibraphone, celesta (muted orchestra bells may by substituted), triangle, tambourine, temple blocks, maracas, and snare drum; Percussion 3: 2 suspended cymbals, triangle, cow bell, snare drum, bass drum, and tam tam; Percussion 4: Marimba, timpani (1), cow bell, large tam-tam (which may be shared with players 1 and 3), ratchet, whip, hi-hat, and wind chimes.“An exquisite concert piece that will keep listeners on the edges of their seats! “ - The Clarinet.”This is recommended literature.”- Percussive Notes Learn More

"COLOR'TUDES “Five Attitudinal Colors” for bass clarinet and piano by Howard J. Buss is a intriguing mixture of intellect and fun. Colors influence a wide array of aspects of the human condition, most notably moods and emotions as well as one’s sense of taste and time perception. Too numerous to mention here are the thousands of other ways colors influence our lives. This suite of five character pieces for bass clarinet and piano musically personifies attributes of the respective colors. The temperaments of the movements range from thoughtful and pensive to playful and spirited. The movements and their respective durations are Obsessive Crimson (2’28”), Deep Purple (2’52”), Flippant Yellow (2’35”), Cobalt Aglow (2’49”), and Funky Orange (3’02”). Color'tudes was composed for bass clarinetist Dr. Karl Kolbeck. He and Dr. Angela Miller-Niles premiered it on April 23, 2021. Total duration: 14’ Grade V-VI." Learn More

with Piano

A continuous movement exploring Greed, Blue, Yellow and Red Learn More