Klarinet Archive - Posting 000295.txt from 1995/09

From: Lisa Gartrell Yeo <ux403@-----.CA>
Subj: Re: Willson Osborne
Date: Wed, 13 Sep 1995 15:34:49 -0400

>
>I am desperately seeking some biographical information on Willson Osborne
>(1906-1979). Also, if anyone knows any specific history of his piece
>Rhapsody (1958) for solo clarinet, it would be greatly appreciated.
>
>---------------------
>
>Jonathan Cohler
>cohler@-----.net

The Rhapsody is listed in James Gillespie's Solos for Unaccompanied
Clarinet. Here are the composer's words on the piece taken from this book:

"When I began work on my rhapsody, it was to be solely a composition for
bassoon, but I soon decided to organize it in such a way that it would be
suitable for clarinet as well. This accounts for the absence of extremely
high notes, and also for the considerable use of the chalumeau and middle
registers.
"Some time after writing this piece, I began to find, in addition to
consciously intended aesthetic and emotional qualities, others that I had
not been previously aware of, a discovery I have made with many of my
compositions. Although the Rhapsody was written as abstract music, it does
present a series of shifting emotional states, and this goes so far as to be
one of its most salient characteristics. But my belated discovery of
hidden qualities in this piece went even further; when listening to a
recording of it- at a considerable distance- I suddenly felt that I was
hearing a lonely shepherd piping in a Turneresque, Mediterrean landscape-
pouring out his joys and sorrows, his longings and exultations. But I
hasten to add that it was not composed with this picturesque scene in
mind.
"On the motivic and linear side I made use of the Oriental technique
of variation, in which short song-like fragments are each in turn developed
or at least continued by active, coloratura passages, a method of writing
that appealed to me strongly as a means of creating a piece which was to be
rhapsodic and improvisational in character.
"Although the B-flat clarinet is indicated in the printed copies, this
composition can be played on the A clarinet as well. In bar 61 the
player can disregard the piu stringendo, and play the whole cadenza
stringendo poco a poco to the slentando."

I had a hard time getting any biographical info. on Osborne when I did
a bit of research myself. He is listed in Vol. 3 of Bull's Index to
Biographies of Composers (1987). There is a listing in Anderson's
Contemporary American Composers (1982). His other works include Ricercari
for brass ensemble, Soliloquy for Clarinet Solo (I wondered if they meant
the Rhapsody or is there really another work for clarinet?), Fantasy for
Flute, the Rhapsody for bassoon, and 2 Noels for Chorus. I got this info.
from Anderson's book, I think.
Hope this helps,

Lisa Gartrell Yeo
Victoria, BC