I’m so pleased to present one of my latest pieces, a sonatina for clarinet and piano. I decided to make one of those YouTube score videos since those are all the rage these days (at least among me)
This was a case of writing something for a specific performer, a young clarinetist named Joseph Folwick, who played in the Metropolitan Youth Symphony during my year-long stint as conductor. Joseph was a technical wiz on the instrument, but more than that, his playing was full of a puckish vitality that I’ve rarely encountered. When he had a solo, he would interpolate licks from other pieces (“Rhapsody in Blue” during the “Cuban Overture” for example.)
He was always pushing the limits, trying to see how far he could go to make me laugh before I actually got pissed off. Even when we played my own music (the Mulligan Overture), he would play his part in different octaves and add freewheeling glissandi to the printed part. Rather than getting annoyed by his shenanigans, I changed the score to match his improvisations.
So I was looking out for an excuse to write a piece for him, and the opportunity came to perform at a New Year’s Eve concert here in Portland on December 31, 2017. The sonatina is in three short sections connected into a single movement, lasting about 12 minutes. It’s in turn zany, sultry, soulful, and jocular. He complained (and continues to complain) that the licks were too hard (“impossible!”), and then proceeded to play them perfectly, as you shall hear.
It was a blast to write and perform, as I hope it is to listen to.