Music for Clarinet in B-flat and Orchestra, op. 96b (1993/1995)
Orchestra: 2.2.2.2 - 3.3.2.1 - Timpani, Percussion. <2>, Strings
First
performance : June 30, 2000, Cairo, Cairo Opera
House
Mohamed Hamdy / Cairo Opera Orchestra / Jacek Kraszewski
Duration: 20 Minutes
Publisher:
N. Simrock Hamburg-London (Boosey & Hawkes)
Piano
reduction: EE 5290 / ISMN M-2211-2075-5
Video: Works by Hummel on youtube
The "Music
for Clarinet in B-flat and Orchestra",
op. 96c has the character of an instrumental ballade
with rhapsodic elements, in which the soloist takes, so
to speak, the role of the narrator. This work in one
movement is subdivided into seven sections of
contrasting dynamic and rhythmical structure.
The piece opens with an eight-part sound, unfolding like
a fan, which is re-used several times in the course of
the piece to separate sections. A diatonic, lyrical
theme in the solo instrument develops to a first climax.
The second section is an allegro over rhythmically
beating basses, opening into an orchestral tutti. The
Gregorian hymn "Pange, lingua, gloriosi" is
cited in the third section, to be then combined in a
fourth section with the beating allegro of the second.
In the next formal section, the complete material of the
work - whose beginning is clearly signalled by the
abrupt breaking-off of a rising passage - is reworked in
a kind of development with short orchestral and solo
episodes. A last build-up leads into a cadenza for the
soloist, which forms the penultimate section. In the
coda, the plainchant motif undergoes jazz-like
transformations; then a 16-part chord is built up, out
of which the Clarinet emerges with its final musical
word - with a B-A-C-H (B-Flat - A - C - B) motif of
which hints had previously been audible. A reserved
E-Flat chord with a fading upwards glissando closes the
work in an extreme pianissimo.
Bertold Hummel
