Violin & Clarinet
SKU:
SU.80111202
For
Violin & Clarinet.
Composed by Meyer
Kupferman. Strings,
Violin, Woodwinds,
Clarinet. Performance
Score. Subito Music
Corporation #80111202.
Published by Subito Music
Corporation
(SU.80111202).
Violin &
Clarinet Duration: '
Composed: 1972 Published
by: Soundspells
Productions Includes set
of 2 scores The Garden of
My Father's House (1973)
is a dramatic rhapsody
for violin and clarinet
duo. The composer wrote
the following: I composed
THE GARDEN OF MY FATHER'S
HOUSE in 1972 in memory
of my father, who was my
first music teacher.
Although he played many
instruments and loved to
sing, he could not read a
note of music. When I was
very young he would sing
Gypsy songs, Yiddish
folk-songs and Rumanian
tunes to me and I would
play them back on my
clarinet, often with
ornaments and variations.
Sometimes he would
accompany me on the
piano; he had a few
favorite chords which
always seemed to pop up
no matter what the tune.
The piece is a musical
ritual, based on a
C-sharp drone, or pedal
note, that is heard
without interruption,
across several ranges,
throughout the piece. The
violin's drone tremolos,
often combined with
perfect fifths and
quarter-tone tunings,
imply the key of Csharp
minor. The violin part is
always rubato —
lyrical, expressive and
frequently very
passionate. But, most
importantly, the violin
is always tonal. The
clarinet, on the other
hand, is atonal, its
pitches drawn from the
twelve-tone row that I
used to write my Cycles
of Infinities. The style
of the clarinet is
contemporary, using
wide-range intervals,
biting accents and
unusual instrumental
effects, including
fluttertonguing and
quarter-tone trills. In
combining the
'contrasting' roles of
the two instruments, I
sought to create a
musical ritual-game that
would draw energy and
bits of information from
the polarized
instruments. The language
of the piece calls the
listener's attention to
the cogent features of
both instrumental
personalities in a manner
that is somewhat similar
to the way in which
Yiddish combines German
and Hebrew. The drone
becomes more and more
magnetic and begins to
join the parts together
until they become one in
the final C-sharp
unison.