Duologue 3
Allen Brings
About this work:
While "resting" between two larger projects in 1998 I decided to write a short, five-minute piece for oboe and clarinet which I called a duologue. As of this date, October 31, 2002, six more have materialized, each for a different combination of two instruments. So far, Duologue 3, completed in May, 1999, is one of two to include the piano, my own
instrument. Each duologue exploits characteristics special to the chosen instruments: thus, Duologue 3 stresses the ability of both the clarinet and the piano to attack tones with great intensity, even ferocity, and to negotiate wide leaps easily. In the course of changing registers, often very rapidly, the music also prominently displays the particular colors of these registers in sharp contrast.
Duologue 3 is in ternary form with a quiet, sustained middle section, and, although there is a gradual return to the stridency of the opening section, the piece ends with its energy all but spent. Duologue 3 might almost be understood as if it were driven by a tightly wound spring that has been rewound once to make possible the return to the
opening theme.
Duologue 3 is a true ensemble piece in that, although the individual parts are more or less independent, their significance is revealed only when, like the gears of a motor, these gears finally mesh with one another. This is especially apparent in the beginning, which might remind some listeners of the medieval hocket.
It was never my intention to write a pretty piece, though not an ugly one either. If strong emotions seem to be conveyed by a performance of Duologue 3, the listener is very likely hearing the music much as I imagined it when I wrote it.
Duologue 3 was given its first performance by Esther Lamneck and Rosemary Caviglia in New York City on November 13, 2000.
Score and part available from Mira Music Associates. Contact: miramusic@aol.com
Review: "Duologue 3 by Allen Brings was premiered in this concert. In a single movement ternary form, the music went from a bouncing rhythmic drive with wide interval jumps through a restive quiet section to return to the high energy - and an image was given by the performance of raw energy that was put thrugh the eye of a needle, to reappear on the other side, carrying with it the bouncing thread."
New Music Connoisseur
Vol. 9, No. 1
Version: clarinet & piano
Year composed: 1999
Duration: 00:04:36
Ensemble type: Chamber or Jazz Ensemble, Without Voice:Keyboard plus One Instrument
Instrumentation: 1 Clarinet, 1 Piano