Clarinet,Piano - Level 4 - Digital Download

SKU: A0.836709

Composed by Brian Joyce. Contemporary. Score and part. 27 pages. Brian Joyce #3074129. Published by Brian Joyce (A0.836709).

A piece shrouded in mystery and intrigue. For myself, I mean: I don’t even know what the title means, nor why this particular piece should wear it. The music and the title came as a package deal, falling on me out of the blue one day. It wasn’t on my to-do list, nor was I looking for extra work. But perhaps that’s the answer: the piece itself is the Agent, breaking into my nicely ordered studio and disrupting things for the next few months. I’ll have to think about this some more.

But I digress. Whatever its meaning or provenance, it’s an odd little sonatina. For instance, at its heart the second movement is a traditional scherzo and trio, but it is as misshapen as anything H. P. Lovecraft himself might have envisioned. Even I am not sure where the beginnings and endings of the sections are without a score in hand. Mystery upon mystery.  

Another example: as I began to work on the third movement, I wasn’t sure if it would be a simple binary or ternary form, a rondo or a sonata-allegro. I never did find out, to be honest. All I know is that, to my ears, it sounds like what might have resulted if I had been asked to write the theme to The Simpsons. The audio sample will give you some idea of what I mean.

More questions than answers.

Performance time is a little under 14 minutes.