Progressive Duets, Volume 2 - Clarinet

ISBN 9780825883736. 9 x 12 inches. The Carl Fischer Progressive Duets for trumpet is a comprehensive publication of twenty graded duets that have been arranged or composed by Larry Clark. Larry has drawn on his extensive experience as a school music teacher and a prominent composer/arranger to create a collection of duets that will be useful in a variety of performance situations. Playing duets is an excellent way for the student to build ensemble skills with a colleague or teacher. This collection is a welcome addition to repertoire that will provide players refreshing new duets. It is a collection that is long overdue. This is the second volume of duets I have arranged or composed in the Progressive Duets series. The intention of this volume is to expand the technical difficulties of the duets as the students develop and complete Volume 1 of the series all the way up to the advanced level. I focused this volume on music by great composers, and I also tried to find some new duets that could be adapted from other mediums into effective duets for wind instruments. Those include some of the great inventions written by Johann Sebastian Bach and wonderful duets originally written for violins by Jacques Mazas. I also wanted to present, when possible, complete pieces that could be used in recital performance and not just for study. Many of the pieces in this volume contain multiple movements with this goal in mind. In my experience as an instrumental music teacher, I found that having students play in small chamber music groups was a very beneficial exercise to improve the studentas overall musicianship. The simplest form of chamber music is the duet. It is an opportunity for the student to play with a teacher or to play with another student of similar abilities. Aspects of playing such as tone quality, intonation, technique and ensemble skills can be developed during the process of studying duets. Over the years I have become frustrated by the limited amount of available duet collections. It seemed that everywhere I went everyone was using the same one or two collections. So, I endeavored to create a new collection of duets for this important teaching and performing purpose. This dream became a reality in 2006 with the publishing of the Carl Fischer Progressive Duets Volume 1. I am excited now to bring to you this second volume for more advanced students that brings together some new arrangements from the classical repertoire along with established duets and some new compositions that will provide hours of musical enjoyment. The duets are placed in the book in order of difficulty and cover a range of keys that are appropriate for this ability level. Special care was given to making sure that both of the duet parts were on a similar ability level and that each line was given an opportunity to play a lead role at some point during the arrangements. Also, all musical markings are attached to both systems, and the point size of the music was considered for ease of reading. It is my hope that this collection will help to stimulate and enhance the musicianship of the performers. It was a pleasure for me to have the opportunity to put together this collection. I hope it is a useful tool for you for years to come.