Sonata Clarinet & Piano in Bb

Hi, here the first movement of a Sonata for Clarinet & Piano. 

Let me know your opinion. Also if any clarinet player or someone how knows: do you think it would be difficult to play? Do you see it difficult for breathing? It sounds quite demanding to my. Any tips to make it more playable?

Quite a fun piece!  There are some spots that are difficult because of breathing but I think a Clarinetist playing this would find a way to sneak breaths in by shortening some of the notes and it wouldn't be a problem.  Like the phrase starting at meas. 44 which is quite long the way you have it.  The Clarinetist would probably breathe by shortening the last quarter note of meas. 49.  Certainly playing the whole phrase up until meas. 61 beat 3 would be impossible without circular breathing.  Same thing with the phrase that starts at meas. 99 in the recapitulation.

Actually, another thing that's tricky is the piano part in the slow introductory section of the piece where the piano has three voices and the middle voice constantly has to switch between being played by the right and left hands in order to be possible.  It would have been nice to notate that by splitting the middle voice between the treble and bass staves where appropriate.  But that's just a nit pick and a possible way of making a convenience for the pianist.  Thanks for sharing!

As a clarinetist (out of practice, but nonetheless still a clarinetist) I can say that this is a very easy piece. Breathing and phrasing go together, so any competent player would be able to insert breaths where appropriate. You do have to understand, though, that this would come at the expense of some quarter notes being played as eighths, some whole notes as dotted halves, etc. This is just part of playing a wind instrument and there is no need to stress over it. Think of it like bowing. You would not write in explicit bowing for a violin piece except where it was essential to the musical idea.

Two other things: first, a clarinetist would immediately notice that you're not thinking about articulation. Every note is tongued - articulated the same way. That just isn't effective or characteristic on woodwinds in general in the style you're writing. At minimum you should think about the 16th notes. Slur two, tongue two? Slur three, tongue 1? Slur 8? It's all part of the way the instrument speaks and you shouldn't be ignoring it.

Second, if I were playing this piece I would be annoyed at being totally cut out of the Adagio and having to stand there and do nothing to do for 2+ minutes.

Hi! I play clarinet, and sounds pretty good for play and breath. If you wanna blow the players head make many changes of tone, for us is pretty easy play in the same tone; the other tip is, the jumps, play scales is normal. but thirds, fourths, in descendent way, you know, is other level of difficulty. maybe that changes makes the piano more demanding too. 

On 1/30/2022 at 11:44 PM, PeterthePapercomPoser said:

Quite a fun piece!  There are some spots that are difficult because of breathing but I think a Clarinetist playing this would find a way to sneak breaths in by shortening some of the notes and it wouldn't be a problem.  Like the phrase starting at meas. 44 which is quite long the way you have it.  The Clarinetist would probably breathe by shortening the last quarter note of meas. 49.  Certainly playing the whole phrase up until meas. 61 beat 3 would be impossible without circular breathing.  Same thing with the phrase that starts at meas. 99 in the recapitulation.

Actually, another thing that's tricky is the piano part in the slow introductory section of the piece where the piano has three voices and the middle voice constantly has to switch between being played by the right and left hands in order to be possible.  It would have been nice to notate that by splitting the middle voice between the treble and bass staves where appropriate.  But that's just a nit pick and a possible way of making a convenience for the pianist.  Thanks for sharing!

 

Hi, I will take in account to write right and left hand on the piano to make easier to play for the pianist next time. Thanks for your feedback!

On 1/31/2022 at 12:40 AM, Tom Statler said:

As a clarinetist (out of practice, but nonetheless still a clarinetist) I can say that this is a very easy piece. Breathing and phrasing go together, so any competent player would be able to insert breaths where appropriate. You do have to understand, though, that this would come at the expense of some quarter notes being played as eighths, some whole notes as dotted halves, etc. This is just part of playing a wind instrument and there is no need to stress over it. Think of it like bowing. You would not write in explicit bowing for a violin piece except where it was essential to the musical idea.

Two other things: first, a clarinetist would immediately notice that you're not thinking about articulation. Every note is tongued - articulated the same way. That just isn't effective or characteristic on woodwinds in general in the style you're writing. At minimum you should think about the 16th notes. Slur two, tongue two? Slur three, tongue 1? Slur 8? It's all part of the way the instrument speaks and you shouldn't be ignoring it.

Second, if I were playing this piece I would be annoyed at being totally cut out of the Adagio and having to stand there and do nothing to do for 2+ minutes.

 

Hi, thats interesting what you say. What do you mean by tonged? played with the tongue? do you refer to the way it is notated, or recorded? Here I used sustain patch for long notes, legato for medium fast and portato for fast notes. Can you please develop that what you say a bit? I didn't get it...

Ok, I apologize to let the clarinetist not to play for the adagio introduction, but I have more movements in mind for the sonata. All the rest with a clarinet playing. Just the intro I just felt like piano on ist own was satisfiyng. I m happy to know its playable like it is. Thanks for posting!

On 2/7/2022 at 7:15 AM, jcastanedaamaya said:

Hi! I play clarinet, and sounds pretty good for play and breath. If you wanna blow the players head make many changes of tone, for us is pretty easy play in the same tone; the other tip is, the jumps, play scales is normal. but thirds, fourths, in descendent way, you know, is other level of difficulty. maybe that changes makes the piano more demanding too. 

 

Thank you, good to know that!

Here the second and third movement of the sonata. The final one will be a Presto in 6/8 metric. Thats still on proccess...

Those two shouldnt be an issue to play, because are slower, but any comments are wellcome.

> What do you mean by tonged? played with the tongue? do you refer to the way it is notated, or recorded?

Every note on a wind instrument has to be started (articulated) in some way; you just don't start blowing. Typically this is done by saying (no voice) the letter "T" into the instrument in some way. This is called "tonguing". Tonguing each note in a phrase momentarily stops the airflow and/or the vibration of the lips or reed that is driving the sound and separates the notes. I'm sure you can imagine there are all kinds of ways of nuancing this separation. Alternatively, not tonguing between notes and keeping the airflow going results in the smooth transition called a slur.

If you don't notate articulations, you're either telling the performer that they are free to do whatever they want, or that you want every note separated by tonguing. In the style in which you're writing, doing the latter just isn't characteristic for any wind instrument.