Intermezzo For Solo Clarinet and Winds (2024)
Instrumentation: Level 5 Wind Ensemble & Clarinet Solo
Approx. Running Time: 7:25
The clarinet is the true chameleon of the orchestra; it can blend seamlessly, invisibly, with all the other ensemble members, and it possesses an incredibly unique characteristic to sound as quiet as the performer wishes. No other member of the ensemble share these particular abilities in the same fashion as the clarinet. Additionally, it is rather famously an excellently designed and constructed instrument. It also encompasses a vast range, covering notes of the bassoon on the low end up to some of the highest notes of the flute. For all of these reasons, for a composer, it is an excellent choice as a soloist.
Indeed, this work is presented as a solo work, a one-movement concerto, where the solo clarinetist is the featured element (standing in front of the ensemble), and the other members of the ensemble work to support the soloist. This tradition of soloist + ensemble can be traced back hundreds of years into the earliest works of the Baroque period.
The form was especially popularized in the Romantic period, and much of the harmonies of this work drew upon the harmonies of composers of that era. If you listen carefully, you should be able to pick out some of the sonic characteristics of the clarinet (described earlier) in this work performed for you today.
Purchasing the score/parts set grants you all PDF files, 1x coil-bound score (10 by 13) and 1 printed copy (per part) of each booklet printed on 12 by 18 paper. For this score, a PDF of the soloist part (clarinet in Bb) is included with all purchases.