Clarinet Quintet in C minor, 3rd movement: Adagio-Fuga a5 (Remastered final version)

This is the 3rd movement of my Clarinet Quintet in C minor, which is completed 4 years ago and I'm revising it. Thx to my friend Vince @Thatguy v2.0 for making the audio!

Here is the pdf, audio, video of the movement. I have also made a structural graph since this movement is a fugal one and I want to show the structure more clearly.

https://youtu.be/QMQyFbriSmM

(For YT)Clarinet Quintet in C minor 3rd mov Final Version 20260906.pdfClarinet Quintet 3rd Mov Structural Plan.pdf

To me this is core movement in the piece and my favourite. After 2nd movement's anxious power I finally calm down to reflect subjectively and (more)objectively, which are represented by Lament and Fugue respectively with the following structure:

0:00 1st Lament, using the despair [0134] motive again, then incorporate the (future) fugue subject in the clarinet while strings keep lamenting, and ends with one more question of despair. Real lament after what is suffered in the first 30 minutes of the work.

1:10 1st Fugue. Appearance of prime form of the subject. I always go for F minor in any secondary themes or answer in my C minor works because G minor is always too weak for C minor. Only F minor is dark enough for it. First stretto in 3:05. Ends in F minor with angry despair.

4:03 2nd Lament. A complete new part for this movement added only in this final version, sounds more dissonant than anything else in the movement, further intensifies the pain.

5:00 2nd Fugue. Using the retrograde form of the subject as main subject, denoting the backward reflection of me on despair. The flow here is also more fluid. [BACH] in viola in 6:56. Prime subject joins again in 7:16 to have stretto with the retrograde subject. Ends in F minor again with augmented subject in 8:07.

8:25 3rd Lament. My favourite of the movement, the sheer pain especially in 8:41-9:00 always aches my heart. But human beings only change after pain and I am no exception, so after this painful passage some hope is finally invited to the party to modulate to E flat major for next part.

9:40 3rd Fugue. Using the inverted form of the subject as main subject, denoting the complete upside down of thought from despair to hope. Later the retrograde inversion form of the subject enters in 11:08 to represent even further distance from despair. The climax in 11:48 is the most hopeful passage in what's happened in the entire Quintet up to this point. But after it doubts continue to enter. Despair starts invading in 12:42, and in 13:18 the prime form in tonic c minor enters in a subconscious Viola entry plus an augmented 2nd violin entry. I think a lot on whether to extend the transition or not, but finally I just decided to keep it this way since an early defeat of hope can represent the cruelty of despair and the weakness of hope more. I love the sheer pain here, and the return of prime subject on cello in 13:40 means the struggle of hope is futile. An E flat major prime entry on Clarinet try to struggle once more but falls to despair again, a final prime subject on cello in 14:11 announces the defeat of hope. The section ends on a German Sixth chord to leave the music suspended.

14:36 Final Lament and coda. Solo by Clarinet, wants to escape by quoting the dream motive in G flat major like in 1st movement but has to accept despair. In 15:19 the opening returns to remind unsettled affair. In 15:36 all four forms of subject appear for a final conclusion and lament and acceptance of despair and tragedy. Only by acceptance you may recover from it.

The biggest change I made in this revision is the addition of 2nd Lament and repetition of 1st Lament. This is my original plan but with the bad sound sample I deleted them in my final draft. But now with Vince's great rendition I think it's better to retain them and extend the Laments to match the overall narrative structure. I also change the entrance order of the instrument, some counterpoint and details here and there etc. In terms of fugal treatment I make use of all four forms (prime, retrograde, inversion and retrograde inversion) of the same subject to denote the ups and downs, thinking backward and forward of me, so they are not merely fugal devices but also have narrative function.

Hopefully you enjoy the movement, feel free to criticize it and leave comments here. It's a long movement and a long description, and I gratefully thank you if you listen and read till the end!

P.S Here are YC posts of previous movements:

1st Mov:

2nd Mov:

Henry

Straight away you get to the point with the very nice intro. It has a distinct theme and haunting harmony. The fugues are very beautiful, and the transitions are quite smooth. But I especially love the intro. The intro has a Tchaikovsky feel to it, very dark, emotional with lots of soul. The fugues are fun and I can tell you paid close attention to orchestration. It seems that your key changing is pretty tame in this movement, at least within sections. Your transition from the 8 minute mark to the 9:20 mark is particularly well done and I like how you split this movement into 2...where the first section is the darker side, and the second section is the happier side. It gives the piece a nice balance. The second section reminds me a little of Bach's inventions, before you remind us of the darkness of the entire piece by shifting focus back to the intro!

Hi Henry,

Well done on your revision of this major work: it must've taken such a long time to do!

I'm very impressed with all the detail in your structural plan. (Don't think I could stick to something like that, as I tend to write organically by instinct alone.)

Are you hoping to get a performance by real musicians?

Alex