Daytime Drama

From Wind Repertory Project
Matthew C. Saunders

Matthew Saunders


General Info

Year: 2010-2011
Duration: c. 12 min.
Difficulty: VI (see Ratings for explanation)
Publisher: Matthew Saunders
Cost: Score and Parts - $100.00   |   Score Only - $10.00


Instrumentation

Full Score
Solo B-flat Clarinet
Piccolo
Flutes I-II
Oboes
Bassoons
B-flat Soprano Clarinet I-II-III
B-flat Bass Clarinet
E-flat Alto Saxophones I-II
B-flat Tenor Saxophone
E-flat Baritone Saxohpone
B-flat Trumpet I-II-III
Horn in F I-II-III-IV
Trombone I-II
Bass Trombone
Euphonium
Tuba
Percussion I-II-III-IV-V-VI, including:

  • Bass Drum
  • Crash Cymbals
  • Cowbell
  • Drum Set
  • Marimba
  • Snare Drum
  • Suspended Cymbal
  • Timpani
  • Tom-toms (4)
  • Triangle
  • Tubular Bells (Chimes)
  • Vibraphone
  • Wood Blocks
  • Xylophone


Errata

None discovered thus far.


Program Notes

Daytime Drama is a twelve-minute concerto for clarinet and wind ensemble written for Dr. Magie Smith of Eastern Illinois University.

The title refers to the trade name for what are commonly known in the United States as “soap operas.” These televised serial dramas, the oldest of which have roots in radio programming of the 1930s, take their name from their traditional corporate sponsors, the makers of laundry soap and other household products intended for the presumed audience for these programs, the urban or suburban housewife. The composer’s experience, though, is that almost every woman in his life, housewife or not, has at one point become enthralled with one of these programs, to his own mystification. The irony of these programs is that so much happens, yet so much remains the same, and viewers who have been away from the show for years can often quickly reorient themselves to the story in a single episode. While helping his wife, Becky, recover from surgery in the summer of 2009, the composer was exposed to several weeks’ worth of The Young and the Restless, and the inspiration for this piece was born.

Daytime Drama presents a day in the life of the heroine of a soap opera, played by the solo clarinetist. Whether the soloist plays Susan Lucci as “Erika Kane” or Melody Thomas Scott as “Nikki Newman,” an hour of drama is presented here in condensed form: from the main theme of the series through a funeral, a catfight, a coma, amnesia, an encounter with an evil twin, and a wedding, ending in a “cliffhanger” that closes with a promise to inch the plot forward in the next “episode.”

- Program Note by composer


Media

(Needed - please join the WRP if you can help.)


State Ratings

None discovered thus far.


Performances

To submit a performance please join The Wind Repertory Project

  • Sinclair Community College (Dayton, Ohio) Community Wind Symphony (Kenneth Kohlenberg, conductor; Magie Smith, clarinet) - 17 November 2012


Works for Winds by This Composer


Resources