Quartet for Clarinet, Piano, and Strings
​​2012 | Clarinet, Violin, Cello, and Piano | Op. 15

I. Adagio serio
II. Allegro con malizia

to Brenden Guy and Kevin Rogers

First Performance: 18 March 2012, First Unitarian Universalist Church, San Francisco.
Brenden Guy, clarinet, Kevin Rogers, violin, Erin Wang, cello, & Aaron Pike, piano.
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Duration: ca. 10:00
Movements may be performed separately.
Program Note
The idea of composing a chamber work for clarinet has been on my musical to-do list for years. In fact, a number of times I began sketches for such a piece, though all occupied a much lighter emotional landscape than the piece on this program. It was not until Brenden Guy and Kevin Rogers approached me this fall that the work truly began to take shape. The addition of violin to the instrumentation immediately suggested a much more serious musical language than I had previously envisioned. And while I typically do not subscribe to the notion of composition as self-expression, I cannot help but consider this piece my most personal to date.

The work is cast in a two movement, slow–fast form. The first movement, marked Adagio serio begins with a somber melody that appears in a number of different guises throughout the movement. The unfolding of the movement reflects my desire to employ a more organic approach to composition without sacrificing formal integrity. The movement is expressively and texturally indebted to the Aaron Copland Piano Quartet, the study of which provided me with solutions to certain problems presented by my musical material.

If the first movement seems to look inward emotionally, the second, Allegro con malizia–with malice–is surely an outward reaction to such inner contemplation. The opening bars of the movement are from a discarded sketch for my String Quartet No. 1. I loved the rhythmic and emotional intensity the material possessed but couldn’t make it work at the time. Happily, those measures seemed the perfect conclusion for the present work, and quickly took on a life and direction all their own.

The work is dedicated to Brenden Guy and Kevin Rogers. A young composer could not possibly ask for two more devoted and enthusiastic friends and collaborators.

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