Sonata for Clarinet and Piano Op.138 c.21’00”
I. Allegro
II. Lento, molto libero
III. Allegro di molto
Commissioned by University of Massachusetts Amherst, the Boston Chamber Music Society, and Apex Concerts
Dedicated to Romie de Guise-Langlois
First performed on October 17th 2021 at Jordan Hall in Boston, Massachusetts by Romie de Guise-Langlois, clarinet and Max Levinson, piano.
ABOUT
I have wanted for a long time to compose an extended work for Clarinet and Piano, so when Romie de Guise-Langlois - an artist I have long admired - asked me for one, I was thrilled to oblige. I am grateful to the University of Massachusetts Amherst, the Boston Chamber Music Society, and Apex Concerts for making this commission a reality.
Composers are often asked to write or speak about what their music means, or what they were thinking about when writing a piece, and I usually find this to be a daunting proposition. My instrumental music is seldom concerned with extra-musical content: it is music for its own sake, evoking abstract emotions but rarely descriptive of specific things, events, or philosophies. It is for this reason that I have preferred generic titles like “Sonata” for my pieces. (In this case, “Sonata” is used in the broadest sense of a large-scale multi-movement work for instruments: the individual movements bear little resemblance to traditional sonata forms.) Therefore, when asked “what it is all about?” my usual response is that if I could put it into words, there would be no need to write the music. Also, I try to avoid to writing program notes that give a blow-by-blow account of the compositional events of a piece: I’ve always felt that, like reading the synopsis of a movie before watching it, this can deprive the listener of the opportunity to discover the music as it unfolds, moment to moment. It is my hope that the musical content of my work communicates itself to the listener on its own terms, without the necessity for explanation or intervention. I am happy for my audience to have just than the movements’ tempo indications as a guide and let them discover for themselves what the music is “about” in real time.
RECORDINGS
