A tip of the hat to Stravinsky's Three Pieces, I think of the solo clarinet pieces as my last "20th Century" composition. Not only was the 20th century over, but these two were the last to fit the 20th century, avant-garde ethos. By 2003, I'd already begun to move away from most of the Western European Art Music tradition.
1. Dance
2. Verset
3. Rant
Three Pieces for Solo Clarinet was written in the fall of 2001. These were spontaneous, uncommissioned, un-requested works that seemed to come from nowhere. But looking back, I see that they encapsulate a lot of what I was feeling (what everyone was feeling) in the fall of 2001: confusion, sadness, anger, disappointment... Each movement features one of the three primary ‘colors’ produced by the three different registers of the clarinet, and each is a sonata-allegro form, where tiny gestural figures are used as themes.
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COMPOSER
BILL
WHITLEY
"Whitley composes music of integrity and sophistication that's also disarmingly accessible—not an easy combination to achieve, even if he makes it sound easy..."
Textura eZine, August 2017
$10.00Price
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