luna (1999)
for clarinet, violin, cello, and piano, 9 minutes
Instrumentation
clarinet, violin, cello, piano
A meditative work which features the clarinet prominently.
Listen
Luna (excerpt)
Program Notes
luna, an alternately serene and stormy night-piece for clarinet, violin, cello, and piano, opens with a tranquil clarinet solo. Cello and piano enter after the clarinet cadenza, augmenting and elaborating its melody. A second motif gradually appears which increases the storminess of the music, and closes the first section with a powerful cadence. A short passage of skittering, quasi-improvisatory sounds follows, as an overflow of the energy built up in the first climax, after which (following a second clarinet cadenza and extended transition), the opening clarinet melody reappears, this time in canon between clarinet, violin, and cello. The form of the opening section is repeated, and luna dissolves into silence in the instruments’ very high registers.
—Andrew Earle Simpson