Reverie for Bb Clarinet & Piano

Reverie

Reverie for Bb Clarinet & Piano

This piece is inspired by the 2nd movement of Carl Maria Von Weber’s 2nd movement from his Concerto for Clarinet in F minor, Op.73.

Composed in an early Romantic period style, the work features a calm and plaintive main theme.

This theme is heavily contrasted by a slightly faster, more dramatic, and forceful middle section in the tonic minor key that uses a series of sweeping arpeggios as the main building blocks for the clarinet part.

The piano has a ponderous and sober theme in contrast to the sweeping clarinet part that culminates with the clarinet ascending a fortissimo tonic minor arpeggio to a G4.

An ossia of a G3 has been provided in case the player prefers to play this note.

After a brief silence, the piano plays a new peaceful and hymn-like theme for a few bars before the clarinet enters with a quasi-theme that compliments the piano theme.

The clarinet then plays a series of single tones before being imitated by the piano each time before ascending into a short rubato cadenza passage. This concludes with two short pauses before the original theme returns.

This theme winds down before a few unexpected diminished “shock” chords lead to the work’s final moments.