The "Accolades" Caprices Sonatina - Sonata     Composer: David Johnstone Instrumentation: Solo Clarinet Duration: 21 mins (see Notes below) Cat. No: JM17SC Edition / Format: 2006 A4 Score Price: £12.00     Buy Now Go to shop
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(mp3 clips from study recording)

“Accolades” has an eye-catching bright blue cover featuring a photo of a clarinet.The music is printed on high quality paper with dark, clear ink. These unique, varied Caprices could be used both as etudes and as recital pieces. Illuminating performances of these works will surely receive accolades.

International Clarinet Association Magazine Vol. 38 Number 2, March 2011 - review by Katrina Phillips

The 'Accolades' – caprices for solo clarinet – are a series of 8 concert pieces which explore many techniques of modern Clarinet playing written within traditional musical notation. Although they are primarily conceived as recital or concert works, they are also extremely useful as 'study' pieces and are programmed as such in the course-work repertoire of several Spanish music conservatoires.

The composer, also a professional cellist, has dedicated the entire work to the highly regarded Spanish clarinet teacher and specialist chamber-music artist Joan Borràs, whose truly professional musical attitudes and enormous enthusiasm for his instrument are the main reasons for the existence of these musical creations.

These individual pieces can be performed freely in any number and in any order (such as Accolades – Caprice No.2, Accolades – Caprice No.7, and Accolades – Caprice No.4, for example), but in general terms it is useful to know that these pieces gradually progress in an ascending order of difficulty: numbers 1 – 4 would be suitable for most intermediate players, and numbers 5 – 8 considered more appropriate for advanced clarinetists. Not only this, the beauty of the conception of this work is that Johnstone gives simultaneously a double performance possibility: it is that the pieces can equally well be endorsed as being programmed as a Sonatina (Nos. 1 – 4) or as a Sonata (Nos. 5 – 8) – in this case the programme should logically be set out as described below:

Sonatina for Clarinet Solo
I Moderato quasi andantino
II Scherzo
III Reflection (lento e rubato)
IV Moto Perpetuo
(duration: approx. 7 mins.)

Sonata for Clarinet Solo
I Allegro
II Scherzo
III Quasi cadenza (adagio e doppio movimiento)
IV Rondo (con fuoco e pesante)
(duration: approx. 14 mins.)

It can be seen that, presented in this way, both works fall in a fairly traditional four-movement layout. However, whichever way the individual pieces are chosen to be presented, they should make for quite exciting additions for the soloist repertoire, an interesting and refreshing moment during a clarinet and piano recital, and excellent educational material for the intermediate and advanced clarinet class.

 

Full Title:	The "Accolades" Caprices Sonatina - Sonata for solo Clarinet
Composer:	David Johnstone
Instrumentation:	Solo Clarinet
Language (notes):	English & Spanish
Printed Parts:	Score
Format:	Soft back, Stapled
Size:	A4
Music Pages:	14
Weight:	100g
Our Ref:	JM17SC
Publisher:	Co production: Johnstone Music / Creighton's Collection
Edition/Year:	First edition, 2006
Origin:	UK