Klarinet Archive - Posting 000074.txt from 2004/05

From: "CMP" <CMP2003@-----.net>
Subj: [kl] Premiere of Among Friends
Date: Wed, 5 May 2004 10:10:08 -0400

Hello all --

A new work written by Carol Barnett for clarinet, violin, cello and piano
will be premiered Sunday, May 9th on a Music in the Park Series concert.

For those of you in or near the Twin Cities, here is a link to the Music in
the Park Series -

http://www.musicintheparkseries.org/

Premiere of _Among Friends_: 9 May 2004; St. Anthony Park United Church of
Christ, 2129 Commonwealth Ave. at Chelmsford, St. Paul; Burt Hara, clarinet;
Steven Copes, violin: Anthony Ross, cello; Pedja Muzijevic, piano.

Ms. Barnett's notes follow:

While looking for ideas for Among Friends, I happened to hear a performance
of a piano sonata by Alfred Schnittke. I had admired Schnittke's Concerto
for Choir and was hoping for something equally moving in the piano sonata,
but nothing really touched me until I heard a brief reference to
Shostakovich. I began to imagine what I wished Schnittke had written, and
that is how the first movement, appropriately titled "After Schnittke,"
begins, with slow, somber low notes. Gradually the tempo increases, and we
hear a ghostly little waltz, a vaguely Arabic melody in the clarinet, the
Shostakovich motive (D/Eb/C/B), and a fugue that eventually goes out of
control. The second movement, "Scherzo, After Shostakovich," is a joke on
several levels. Unlike most classical scherzos, it is in 2/4 rather than 3/4
time, and has no trio. Its unrelenting cascade of musical ideas is an
ironic comment on the frenetic pace of contemporary life. Listen for
scrubbing strings, the Woody Woodpecker motive, and fragments of two
familiar folk tunes. After such frantic activity, the quartet ends with a
slow "Barcarolle/Lullaby," in which references from the previous movements
are combined in an homage to two other favorite composers, Paul Hindemith
and Dominick Argento.

Charlotte Palmiter
Chaska, MN

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