Chamber music series performance of Richard Stoltzman, clarinet, Bill Douglas, bassoon & piano ... Thursday, January 24, 1985
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Abstract
"In the family of musical instruments the clarinet is a relatively youthful member. It is descended from the single-reed shawm, the chalumeau, and in its initial, early eighteenth-century form was similar in tone quality to its cousin, the oboe. Largely due to modifications in its reed, the clarinet established its true identity by the mid-1700s, when it was accepted into the orchestra by progressive composers such as Jean-Philippe Rameau, Johann Stamitz, and Francois Joseph Gossec. It has been assumed that Mozart first heard the wind instrument he was to favor above all others in London in 1764. Once accepted and refined, the clarinet has proved to be one of the more versatile instruments that Western musicians have had at their disposal. By now there is a long tradition of composers' employing it to add warmth or brilliance to their chamber and orchestral scores. In the early years of the twentieth century, Afro-American musicians adopted the clarinet as a distinctive voice for dixieland jazz combos, in which it was used to provide a layer of harmonic filigree to the busy texture. And, just as important, the clarinet has been and continues to be the "work-horse" of the wind band. Surely its general popularity in modern times is closely related to the peculiar fact that the clarinet is, in a sense, three instruments in one. The clarinet can produce three distinctive timbres, each associated with a different register: the lush, silky low register be-low the break (the chalumeau); the trumpet-like, crystalline middle register above the break (the clarion or clarino); and the bright, somewhat brittle upper register (the altissimo). Like singers, clarinetists strive to produce a consistency and evenness of sound throughout the range of possible pitches, but the variety of timbral possibilities does tend to set the clarinet apart. Indeed, it gives the clarinet much of its colorful personality. ..."--Program notes.
Table of Contents
Program: La Fille au cheveux de lin (transcription) ; Araesque II (transcription) / Claude Debussy -- Quatuor pour la Fin du Temps / Olivier Messiaen -- Two-Part Inventions for Clarient & Basson [transcriptions] / J.S. Bach -- Miniatures / Bill Douglas -- Entrata No. 2 / William Thomas McKinley -- Drei Romanzen, Op. 94 / Robert Schumann -- Sonata for Clarinet & Piano (1962).
Includes: Richard Stoltzman and Bill Douglas, Biographies ; Program Notes by Michael Budds ; Upcoming Events
Includes: Richard Stoltzman and Bill Douglas, Biographies ; Program Notes by Michael Budds ; Upcoming Events