15’30”
composed 2013
premiered by Jennifer Ostwalt (clarinet) and Joungmin Sur (piano) (San Francisco, California)
Composer’s Note
The principle idea for my Sonata for Clarinet and Piano is to musically represent imagery, memories, and personal desires that are all just out of reach. Each of the three untitled movements takes on one possible aspect of this concept. The first movement, marked with the tempo description Intangible, presents fragments of melodies made up of fast, blurry figurations. These fragments represent imagery that is out-of-focus and not quite perceptible. While there is clear direction in the form of the movement, the lines themselves are mercurial - constantly changing - leaving the music with an unsettled absence of security. The second movement presents a simple melody in the style of a lilting French song. This song - described in the music as "a forgotten melody" - is not an actual quotation, but is instead designed to remind the listener of similar melodies, as if conjuring up memories of melodies. Over time, the song slowly descends chromatically, changing its harmony from one key to the next as if melting away into nothing.
The final movement is the emotional crux of the sonata, beginning with music that represents unrelenting frustration. While not specifically programmatic, this frustration can be heard as a quasi-culmination of the prior two movements, arising out of the inability to not obtain any of the images or memories from those movements. This sense of frustration is amplified by a musical motive that consistently reaches for a high E without ever successfully breaking through to the next higher pitch. Over the course of the movement, frustration is replaced by impatience, cynicism, and mocking, before returning to frustration once more. The music climaxes with one last gasp of the clarinet's high E before dramatically shifting to a surprisingly peaceful coda. This coda can be heard as a final acceptance of not obtaining any of these "out of reach" goals, but that would not be the entire story. At the very end of the movement, a final fragment of the song from movement two returns, representing the out-of-reach dream that persists - hope.
This work is both dedicated to and composed for clarinetist Jennifer Ostwalt, my wife and life partner whom to this day I owe and thank for giving me the courage and inspiration to continue to reach for that which seems unattainable.