1. 1. Allegro con fuoco
2. 2. Adagio sostenuto
3. 3. Allegro giocoso

Sonatina for solo clarinet is an early work (my Opus 6) that I wrote for my own performances in Brisbane in 1980. It is in three movements and about 9 minutes duration.  The work can be performed with all movements complete or just individual movements alone. The first movement is declamatory and dramatic and contrasts sustained lower register crescendos and trills followed by a dotted note figure with very quiet chant-like passages in the middle and upper registers. The second movement is also shaped around the contrast of two ideas in different registers: a slow figure with an expressive minor third in fast notes and a lower register and a simple, tenuto phrase based around a recurring motive. The third movement is a very playful and jazzy piece exploring some semitone glissandi and fast passages which play on changes of meter from 6/8 to 5/8. As with all of my solo wind music the work’s ideas and phrases are always articulated by short silences that also facilitate breathing control.

© Andrew Schultz, 2011.