Clarinet Sonata (first movement)

Here is the first movement from my clarinet sonata. It is about four minutes. It took about four days to compose. It is in ternary form. This piece was an exercise to see if I could write a more structured and cohesive piece of music. I sort of rushed the middle section because I was impatient, however. If I continue with the other movements then I'll probably go back and lengthen the middle section or completely rewrite it. I like the main theme though, it's very catchy to me.

I'm beginning my final year of school in a few days so this is my last chance to freely compose into the late hours of the night. Please give comments!

Clarinet sonata first movement.mid

Clarinet sonata first movement.sib

Hi, I really enjoyed this piece and I think it would work very well for the combination. It has a great rhythmic drive to it and is fun and energetic. The quaver movement became a little wearisome as time went on but that is only a small complaint. I really enjoyed the brief moment from bar 46 where it seemed to become very hyperactive and I liked this a lot. The slower central section was nice and the more lyrical quality contrasted nicely with the faster sections.

Overall, I am very impressed, but I think when you come to write the other movements, it may be worth coming back to this one and doing some revising to make it as cohesive as possible.

A small notation point, at bar 46, I would write that as an E flat not a D # as it looks a little odd considering the all flat key sig.

Well done and I look forward to the rest!

Thanks for your comments. I'm usually a stickler for good notation but I think I wrote this very quickly (and using good old Sibelius transposition) so there are probably lots of spelling errors I made. I'm now in my final year at school, the BIG year, so I may not get the other movements done but, for future reference, how do you think I might make the first movement "as cohesive as possible" when I finally do edit it, or does that depend on how my other movements turn out?

Nice piece - I really like the quartal/quintal harmonies throughout, and the melody stands through well despite being mostly in eight note sequences. That said, it'd been nice to have some more variation outside of that rhythm, or maybe just ornament it some more here and there. My favorite part is probably the slower section, which serves as a nice contrast to the rest of the piece. Maybe you could work in parts of it later into the piece (ie, as a part of the slow second movement)? Anyways, it'd be neat to hear a live performance of this - I'm sure the midi/sib file doesn't do it justice.

Thanks for the comment. I agree about the melody lacking rhythmic variation. I get really addicted to quartel and quintal harmonies and I have to hit myself sometimes to stop me writing with them. And yes, the plan was to use the material from the slow section for the slow movement if I ever get the time to complete it.

Very nice, I enjoyed the pacing you used in this movement. Any comments or reservations I have are fairly minor points, on the whole I think it's quite well done and is quite effective for what style I'm sensing it's in. I do agree with other comments already made that the rhythmic motion could be varied a bit, some of the lines seemed a bit stagnant and could have opened up a bit more (in the piano as well as the clarinet) and been more free. This doesn't necessarily have to come from rhythm, there could be embellishments, meter changes, perhaps more use of dynamics for expression (there may have already been plenty, sorry if there was, sib files don't always bring that across well and I wasn't looking at dynamic markings when I listened). This might especially be important as the piece (especially for the piano) gets pretty tricky in some places and if you're looking into a live performance, depending on who's doing it, the piece might slow down some and if it does I think rhythmic problems would become more glaring, more variety would help keep it sounding exciting in the event of a tempo drop. But overall I think its very nice, keeps generally very fresh, very energetic. Well done, would be interested to hear what you do for the other two movements and how they relate to this one.

Thanks very much for your comment, Jared. Dynamics are very shoddy on Sibelius, as we all know. I hadn't thought of embellishments but looking back at it I can't imagine why I didn't do that. When I go back and edit this piece that will be the first change I make. Thanks for the thought :ermm:. Metre changes I'll also consider.

lol its a very awkward piece, sounds very modern. dunno if i would actually go and pay to listen to this music lol but i know people that would. but i can appreciate it its a very good piece of work. its got alot of energy about even in the slow bits, u can just imadgine the pianst swetting waiting for the next crazy bit good work!!!