Concerto (Grange)

From Wind Repertory Project
Philip Grange

Philip Grange


Subtitle: For Solo Clarinet Radical and Symphonic Wind Band. Sheng Sheng Bu Shi


General Info

Year: 1998
Duration: c. 21:30
Difficulty: VI (see Ratings for explanation)
Publisher: Maecenas Music
Cost: Score and Parts (print) - £100.95   |   Score Only (print) - £24.95


Instrumentation

Full Score
Solo B-flat Clarinet
Flute I-II
Oboe I-II
English Horn
Bassoon I-II
Contrabassoon
E-flat Soprano Clarinet
B-flat Soprano Clarinet I-II-III
B-flat Bass Clarinet
B-flat Soprano Saxophone
E-flat Alto Saxophone I-II
B-flat Tenor Saxophone
B-flat Trumpet I-II-III
Horn in F I-II-III-IV
Trombone I-II
Bass Trombone
Euphonium
Tuba
Timpani
Percussion I-II-III, including:

  • Bamboo Chimes (4)
  • Gong (3)
  • Tam-Tam (2)
  • Vibraphone (2)


Errata

None discovered thus far.


Program Notes

The composer writes:

This concerto was written between May 1998 and October 2000, and reflects the study of Chinese language and literature I was undertaking at the time. This is apparent in the work's poetic title Sheng Sheng Bu Shi'which is an expression taken from the I-Ching (Chinese Book of Changes) that could be translated as "Ever growing, never stopping".

The genre-based title of the work, Concerto for Solo Clarinet Radical and Symphonic Wind Band, relates both to the use of radicals in the Chinese language and the relationship between the soloist and band. In the first half of the piece, the clarinet soloist is a radical in being the prime source for everything that happens, initiating and pushing along the manner in which the various strata develop. Once the work has expanded to the highest and lowest notes possibl, the music collapses into a constant fast tempo, and it is from this point that the soloist is a radical in the more common sense of someone who stands against the crowd. When this section reaches its climax the clarinetist tries to compete with and block the whole band, a passage inspired by the pictures of the lone student trying to block the path of a tank during the Tiananmen Square protests in Beijing in 1989. However, the soloist is overwhelmed by the musical flow. In the end, this tries to reach an impossibly fast speed and implodes, leaving the soloist to lament as the fragments of fast music disappear. The music never indulges in chinoiserie and the style is very much my own.

Commissioned by the Royal Northern College of Music, Manchester, UK, the first performance was given by Alan Hacker (clarinet) and the RNCM Symphonic Wind Ensemble, conductor Timothy Reynish, at the RNCM in Manchester, on 22 November 2000. The first performance at a WASBE Conference was given at the 2007 Killarney Conference by Sarah Williamson (clarinet) and the National Youth Wind Ensemble of Great Britain, conductor Phillip Scott, on 12 July 2007.


- Program Note by World Association of Symphonic Bands and Ensembles (WASBE)


Awards


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Performances

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Works for Winds by This Composer


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