Description
Slow jazz…. What musical language could celebrate more appropriately the lyrical, sensuous, expressive character of the clarinet? The three Chocolates, in this version for clarinet and piano, are torch songs in the tradition of the passionate, tuneful ballads of the American ‘40s and ‘50s.
Originally composed for viola, the first two Chocolates, “Valentine” and “Bittersweet,” offer soulful narratives that speak to devotion, poignancy, romance, uncertainty, longing. The third Chocolate, “Triple Mocha Indulgence,” is slightly less soul-searching, more ebullient, and progressively becomes animated (a sugar high, perhaps?) right up to its raucous close.
Chocolates was commissioned and premiered in 1998 by violist Michelle LaCourse, to whom this music is dedicated.
solo parts included: Clarinet in A, Clarinet in Bb
