Stained Glass, for clarinet and piano

"Stained Glass" recording

Hello! I performed my senior recital yesterday with the program themed around the last century of music. I closed the concert with the premiere of my new piece, "Stained Glass."

Shortly after writing my "Suite of Minimalism," my dad asked me to write a piece for him. From December to February, I wrote this one-movement piece (initially planned to be two, but the 2nd didn't have enough steam). While I was planning my recital at this time, I thought it would be even more impactful for him to premiere it live as the first time he hears it.

Writing the first movement, I used the percussive, minimalistic elements I love to create a piece challenging the range of the piano and clarinet. There are robotic, articulate high note passages in the clarinet to bring color to the performance room, and a constant drive forward during the first and last thirds of the piece. The middle section starts as a delicate and somber piano solo with held clarinet notes, before settling into a push-pull rubato feel. Once the middle section concludes, I brought back the energetic and percussive power, but the phrases quickly jump between each other. It is meant to feel like an anxious recap of the start, but it fizzles out into a beautiful final moment as a callback to the introduction.

Stained Glass feels like a fitting name to me, as there is this beautiful color splashed throughout the piece in the varying ranges, dynamics, and articulations of the clarinet and piano. While there are loud and powerful sections, there remains a lightness to the whole piece.

The Score is provided below, and a link to the audio at the top. I would love to hear your thoughts! This is my fifth performed composition.

First of all - a great performance!  Bravo - Your style is minimalist - yet, I hear many impressionistic ideas as well.   At first I was a bit wary of the repetitive nature of the work; however, as I listened - you won me over and provided an interesting musical journey.

14 minutes ago, MJFOBOE said:

First of all - a great performance!  Bravo - Your style is minimalist - yet, I hear many impressionistic ideas as well.   At first I was a bit wary of the repetitive nature of the work; however, as I listened - you won me over and provided an interesting musical journey.

 

Thank you for all of the kind words! Yes, my style is a blend of minimalism/impressionism (quite a cool style blend!). I have gotten that comment of “wary of repetitiveness, but won me over” actually a few times now. I have talked about this back with my Suite of Minimalism, but despite my love for how cool minimalism can sound, I HATE that it goes nowhere. I can’t stand listening to Glass. Reich is a bit better and I really like the color of his music. Adams is my favorite of the three. What I do is I use the parts of minimalism I like, but constantly change the music to make it go somewhere. 
 

Just wanted to explain my style a bit. I think it is cool it won you over. Thanks for listening! Feel free to message me if you have a piece you want some feedback on 🙂

Great Piece! The performance definitely helps it come across. I enjoyed the piano texture throughout and the though I don't know about clarinet writing but it seemed to work.

The link to the sound file appears to be dead.