La Feria (The Fair) is a Spanish fiesta! All the sights and sounds of a traditional Spanish street festival.
Paul Lacome wrote mostly operas-bouffes, light comic operas. That same drama and delight comes through in this piece. Originally written for orchestra, there have been many popular arrangements for band. I have arranged it for Clarinet Quartet without losing any of the Spanish tradition or dramatic character of the piece.
The Suite is in 3 sections. The first is entitled Los Toros (The Bulls). The running of the bulls is a tradition of nearly every Spanish fair. This highly energetic and rhythmic section is traditional Spanish fiesta music at its best. The second section is entitled La Reja (loosely-The Gate). This one is in the form of a Serenade. Every fair has a street barred off with a special archway entrance or gate. Inside, tents are set up serving local wine. Strolling street musicians will visit each tent and serenade. This section is scaled back dynamically and also in texture to imitate the solo or duo strolling musician. For the B theme of this section I move the melody to the Clarinet 3 part down low. I like to amuse myself and think of this brief growling melody as a tipsy patron of the tent singing back to the musicians. The street musicians then quickly resume their original song. The final section is entitled La Zarzuela. The Zarzuela is a uniquely Spanish comic opera that is heavy on dance and spoken dialogue. It has much in common with the American vaudeville shows. This section is in the form of a brisk waltz, another high energy rhythmic dance where Clarinet 2 takes the B theme melody.
This piece is of Advanced Intermediate difficulty due to constant movement, articulations, rhythm, and range. Clarinet 1 in particular uses the full range of the instrument.
21 page score, 4 pages @ part, 38 pages total booklet
4:30 minutes
temporary MIDI recording

"Jingle Bells" is one of the best-known and commonly sung American songs in the world. It was written by James Lord Pierpont (1822?1893) and published under the title "One Horse Open Sleigh" in the autumn of 1857. It has been claimed that it was originally written to be sung by a Sunday school choir; however, historians dispute this, stating that it was much too "racy" (and secular) to be sung by a children's church choir in the days it was written. Although not originally intended on having any connection to Christmas, it became associated with Christmas music and the holiday season in general decades after it was first performed on Washington Street in Boston in 1857. This jazz-swing arrangement for clarinet quartet includes the following parts: Bb Clarinet 1 or Eb Clarinet, Bb Clarinet 2, Bb Clarinet 3 or Eb Alto Clarinet, Bb Bass Clarinet.