Spencer Brand

This piece is a landscape portrait of a sunset over lake Ida in Minnesota. Composed at sunset, I attempted to capture the purple and orange hues created by the falling sun. This magical moment served as the inspiration for the middle section of the piece where the contrabass clarinet falls as the sun fell that night, while the piano glimmers in the remaining sunlight.

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This piece focuses on the low range of the contrabass clarinet, which is starkly contrasted by the high range of the piano. This work may challenge the clarinetist on playing in the low register and reading several ledger lines. I have provided three “Ossia” passages for sections that extend below E3 and may be out of range on some contrabass clarinets. However, it should be noted that the clarinetist can alternate between the two versions of the cadenza.

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This work was commissioned by Dr. Kimberly Fullerton.