Klarinet Archive - Posting 000477.txt from 1996/03

From: Josias Associates <josassoc@-----.COM>
Subj: Late Compositions for the Clarinet
Date: Mon, 18 Mar 1996 21:12:46 -0500

Greg,

When you ended your message with the admonition, "DON'T WRITE FOR
THE CLARINET. IT WILL KILL YOU" (your caps), I presume you were
referring to the instrument and not the magazine. I mention that
because, although I have no composing skills, I have written for the
magazine, and I hope that that deed will not be harmful to my health.
However, there are at least two members of this list that I know of,
Messrs. Sclater and Sowash, who have been writing noteworthy compositions
for the clarinet, which suggests to me that they might deserve to be
comforted about the safety of what they're doing and the unlikeliness of
voodoo worshippers secretly sticking pins in clarinet-composer dolls.

Over the last three years, I have given some solo clarinet
recitals that have included several of the compositions in your list, which
prompted me to comment in my program notes about the coincidences of the
clarinet compositions seeming to be show stoppers in their careers. Those
pieces included the Brahms Eb Sonata, Schubert's Shepherd...., and the
Poulenc Sonata.

Also included on my programs, but not mentioned in your list, was
the Saint-Saens Sonata (Op. 167), which is believed by some to have been the
last piece he wrote. (This piece was also mentioned by Ron Monsen
and Jacqueline Eastwood in concurrent messages.) Another part of my program
was Gordon Jacob's "Four Seasonal Songs" for clarinet, soprano voice,
and piano, which was written in 1983 in the composer's 88th and last year.

I hope these additions are helpful.

Connie

Conrad Josias
La Canada, California