Double Concerto

SKU: PR.114419720

ISBN 9781491134863. UPC: 680160685790.

In a musical style strongly influenced by (and occasionally parodying) American popular music, the subtitle “Baroque” may seem a puzzle at first. It is also the key to Pann’s approach in composing for multiple wind soloists and ensemble. With Bach’s Brandenburgs in the rear-view mirror, Pann has created a glorious hybrid of inspirations with intricate counterpoint, cadenzas, beautiful slow textures, and wild rides, creating a 16-minute, fast-slow-fast concerto grosso. The published piano reduction is fully practical for live performance.
My Double Concerto (subtitled “Baroque”) from 2018 posed an immediate challenge which gave me some real trepidation as a composer. The two solo instruments, Clarinet and Alto Saxophone, are quite varied in their timbral characteristics yet they have nearly identical ranges. I gave many hours of thought to solving this challenge and eventually settled on an obvious mission: make each instrument as independent from the other as possible. Explore opposite areas of each range simultaneously. Set very different contours against one another in the solo parts. These kinds of things.I. Bach in the Fifties sets the soloists up as competing crooners. I wanted to write a 1950s-style teen idol tune, complete with electric organ, and writing the music I imagined J.S. Bach might tend towards if he was writing for The Platters or Perry Como. This first movement also presents within it a traditional concerto-style cadenza for both soloists together.II. Desert Arias should transport the listener to an arid, barren land over which a mirage of canons emerge.III. Pronouncements is set in the style of a baroque concerto’s final movement. Nuance is forfeited on behalf of straight-ahead melodic dueling. Stravinsky lingers like a ghost behind this finale.