Clarinet Quintet (2022) - קלאַ רנעט קװינטעט

“oh World, Goodnight” - אױ װעלט, גוטע נאַכט

for clarinet (B♭/A/BCl/E♭), string quartet, and optional offstage vocal quartet

50 minutes

Program Notes

Written over the span of a year, the Quintet expresses a deeply personal internal world amongst the fears and anxiety of an ever destabilizing world. The four movements explore these themes through many different forms and styles: from Concerto, Minuet, Theme and Variations, to a Double Fugue, Chorale Prelude, and Klezmer and Jewish Cantorial styles. The work opens as a bouncy Concertino, to later traverse through Hora-like figures, descending into a double fugue and chorale prelude, to finally return to a wild dance. The Sarabande, written first, captures my anxieties, insomnia, and horror of impending collapse of global civilization. The Scherzo, with alternating minuetti and scherzi, wrestles with the dybbuk (malicious possessing spirit). For movements I, III, and IV, I found myself drawn to this chorale by J.C. Bach: “Es ist nun au smit meinem Leben”, which obsesses about one’s death. It was rather terrifying than comforting for me, and while it haunts both the first and third movements, its theme stands front and center in the fourth. In the fourth movement, with the variations preceding the theme, all hell breaks loose musically at the delayed entrance of the theme. And in the midst of the insanity, we come back to the final stanza of the Kaddish, the distant sound of prayer.

Co-Commissioned by the Rossini Club (Nantucket) and the Del Sol Performing Arts Organization for Del Sol Quartet and Nicholas Davies. The complete work was premiered March 18, 2023 with Andrew Friedman, clarinets, Del Sol Quartet, and Carduus Choir, MIT's Kresge Auditorium, Cambridge, MA. Three movements of the Clarinet Quintet premiered August 3, 2022 at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, Nantucket, MA by Nicholas Davies and the Del Sol String Quartet.

Performed by Andrew Friedman, clarinets & Del Sol Quartet on March 18, 2023 in MIT Kresge Auditorium, Cambridge, MA. Offstage vocal quartet for the Prelude and Finale is Carduus Choir.

Recent Performances

March 18, 2023 | Boston Festival of New Jewish Music, MIT Kresge Auditorium, Cambridge, MA. Andrew Friedman, Del Sol Quartet, Carduus Choir.

August 4, 2022 | Nantucket Community Music Center, Nantucket, MA. Del Sol String Quartet, Nicholas Davies.

August 3, 2022 | St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, Nantucket, MA. Del Sol String Quartet, Nicholas Davies.