(1996)
Duration: 14 minutes
Unaccompanied Clarinet in A
First Movement first performed by Martin Ronchetti, 15 December 1996, RMA Postgraduate Conference, University of Cardiff.
Programme Note
This piece was composed in 1996, at a time when I had a daily half hour walk along the River Avon in Bristol. Whilst on this walk, fragments of simplistic, almost childlike musical material came into my head and obstinately refused to go away, repeating themselves obsessively, but with subtle variations in rhythm and phrasing. The outer movements of the work attempt to reconstruct this process. In the first movement, ‘Totentanz’, a handful of tiny musical cells are alternated irregularly at breakneck speed. The second movement is more lyrical, with playful appoggiaturas and fluid arpeggiations. The last movement, “Jazz”, is a complex treatment of a syncopated idea in swung rhythm.