Program notes

Night Birds for solo clarinet, opus 86 (2011)

  1. 1.Mesto e legato
  2. 2.Vivo e pazzo

Night Birds was commissioned as the test piece for 2011 Clasax Festival Competition in Melbourne and was written with an eye to contestants demonstrating both expressive and technical flair. The idea of Night Birds is two contrasting pieces, in total four minutes. Both movements are a little like bird song perhaps heard at night. The first piece is somewhat desolate and moody with the marking of ‘smooth and sad’. The second is contrasting in its boisterous and playful mood – or ‘fast and crazy’ as the tempo marking explains. The pieces use quite a bit of silence, rapid motivic development and the different registers of the clarinet to suggest an internal dialogue or counterpoint in the piece.

© Andrew Schultz, 2011.