Clarinet quintet

Traditionally a clarinet quintet is a chamber musical ensemble made up of one clarinet, plus the standard string quartet of two violins, one viola, and one cello. Now the term clarinet quintet can refer to five B♭ clarinets; four B♭ clarinets and a bass clarinet; three B♭ clarinets and two bass clarinets; one E♭ clarinet, two B♭ clarinets, and two bass clarinets; or one E♭ clarinet, two B♭ clarinets, one E♭ alto clarinet, and one bass clarinet. The term is also used to refer to a piece written for one of these ensembles.

History

One of the earliest and most influential works for this combination of instruments is Mozart's Quintet for Clarinet and Strings, K. 581, written for the clarinetist Anton Stadler in 1789.[1] Although a few compositions for this ensemble were produced over the following years, including the Op. 34 clarinet quintet by Carl Maria von Weber, a composer famous for his solo clarinet compositions, it was not until Johannes Brahms composed his Clarinet Quintet in B minor, Op. 115 for Richard Mühlfeld that the clarinet quintet began to receive considerable attention from composers.[2]

Works for clarinet quintet

• Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart – Clarinet Quintet in A major, K. 581 (1789)[3][4]
• Carl Maria von Weber – Clarinet Quintet in B♭ major, Op. 34 (1811–1815)[5]
• Giacomo Meyerbeer – Clarinet Quintet in E♭ major (1813)
• Anton Reicha – Clarinet Quintet in B♭ major, Op. 89 (1820) and Quintet in F major for clarinet or oboe and string quartet, Op. 107 (1829)
• Heinrich Baermann – three clarinet quintets[6]
• Thomas Täglichsbeck – Clarinet Quintet in B♭ major, Op. 44 (1863)[7]
• Ferruccio Busoni – Suite in G minor, BV 176 (1880)
• Alexander Glazunov – Rêverie orientale, Op. 14 (1886)
• Johannes Brahms – Clarinet Quintet in B minor, Op. 115 (1891)[8]
• Samuel Coleridge-Taylor – Clarinet Quintet in F♯ minor, Op. 10 (1895)[9]
• Henri Marteau – Clarinet Quintet in C minor, Op. 13 (1908)
• Joseph Holbrooke – Cavatina and Variations, Clarinet Quintet No. 1 in D minor, Op. 15b (1910) and Clarinet Quintet No. 2 Ligeia in G major, Op. 27 (1910, revised 1939 and c.1956; original title Fate)[10]
• Robert Fuchs – Clarinet Quintet in E♭ major, Op. 102 (1914)[11]
• Alexander Krein – Three Sketches on Hebrew Themes for Clarinet Quintet, Op. 12 (1914) and Two Sketches on Hebrew Themes for Clarinet Quintet, Op. 13 (1914)
• Max Reger – Clarinet Quintet in A major, Op. 146 (1915–1916)[12][13]
• Herbert Howells – Rhapsodic Quintet, Op. 31 (1917)
• Arthur Somervell – Clarinet Quintet in G major (1919)
• Paul Hindemith – Clarinet Quintet, Op. 30 (1923, revised 1954)[14]
• Günter Raphael – Clarinet Quintet in F major, Op. 4 (1924)
• Quincy Porter – Clarinet Quintet (1929)
• Arthur Bliss – Clarinet Quintet, F. 20 (1932)[15]
• Gordon Jacob – Clarinet Quintet in G minor (1939)
• Morton Feldman – Two Pieces for Clarinet & String Quartet (1961); Clarinet & String Quartet (1983)
• Kurt George Roger – Clarinet Quintet, Op. 116 (1966)
• Bernard Herrmann – Souvenirs de voyage (1967)
• Jean Françaix – Clarinet Quintet (1977)
• Isang Yun – Clarinet Quintet No. 1 (1984) and Clarinet Quintet No. 2 (1994)[16]
• Edison Denisov – Clarinet Quintet (1987)
• Dan Welcher – Quintet for Clarinet and String Quartet
• Ellen Taaffe Zwilich – Quintet for Clarinet and String Quartet (1990)[17]
• Sean Osborn – Clarinet Quintet (1995) and Quintet for Clarinet and Strings, "The Beatles" (2004)
• Milton Babbitt – Clarinet Quintet (1996)[18]
• Jennifer Higdon – Soliloquy
• Howard J. Buss – Millennium Visions (1999)
• Wolfgang Rihm – Vier Studien zu einem Klarinettenquintett (2002)
• Eliott Carter – Clarinet Quintet (2007)[19]
• Ned Rothenberg – Quintet for clarinet and strings (2007)[20]
• David Bruce – Gumboots (2008)
• Airat Ichmouratov One Day of an Almost Ordinary Life, for klezmer clarinet and string quartet, Op. 47 / clarinet and string orchestra Op. 47A (2015)[21]
• Geoffrey Gordon – Quintet for Clarinet and Strings (2015)[22]
• Beat Furrer – intorno al bianco for clarinet and string quartet (2016)
• Jörg Widmann – Clarinet Quintet (2017)[23]

See also

• Clarinet
• String Quartet

References

1. von Wurzbach, Constantin (2012). Das Mozart-Buch (Große Komponisten) (in German). Jazzybee. p. 254. ISBN 978-3-849-60237-6.
2. Lawson, Colin (1998). Brahms: Clarinet Quintet. Cambridge Music Handbooks. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-58831-7.
3. Clarinet Quintet in A major, K.581: Scores at the International Music Score Library Project
4. Einstein, Alfred (1945). Mozart, His Character, His Work. Translated by Mendel, Arthur; Broder, Nathan. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-500732-9.
5. Clarinet Quintet in B-flat major, Op.34: Scores at the International Music Score Library Project
6. Newhill, John P. (1974). "The Adagio for Clarinet and Strings by Wagner/Baermann". Music & Letters. 55 (2): 167–171. doi:10.1093/ml/lv.2.167. JSTOR 733851.
7. Quintet for Clarinet and Strings in B-flat major, Op.44: Scores at the International Music Score Library Project
8. Clarinet Quintet in B minor, Op.115: Scores at the International Music Score Library Project
9. Young, Percy M. (1975). "Samuel Coleridge-Taylor: 1875–1912". Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies. 4 (3): 388–391. doi:10.1080/1369183x.1975.9975391.
10. Webb, Joseph Dee (2009). Joseph Holbrooke – A study of the published and unpublished solo and chamber works for clarinet with an annotated bibliography (DMA). University of North Texas. OCLC 464610233. Retrieved 14 July 2017.
11. Clarinet Quintet, Op.102: Scores at the International Music Score Library Project
12. Kube, Michael, ed. (2014). Max Reger, Klarinettenquintett A-Dur, opus 146, [Studienpartitur], Urtext. München: Henle. ISMN 979-0-2018-7117-2. Preface
13. Clarinet Quintet, Op.146: Scores at the International Music Score Library Project
14. Evans, Edwin (1923). "Donaueschingen and Salzburg Festivals". The Musical Times. 64 (967): 631–635. doi:10.2307/913739. JSTOR 913739.
15. Blom, Eric (1933). "The Clarinet Quintet of Arthur Bliss". The Musical Times. 74 (1083): 424–427. doi:10.2307/917988. JSTOR 917988.
16. Yoo, Youngdae (2000). Isang Yun: His Compositional Technique as Manifested in the Two Clarinet Quintets (DMA). LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses. 7176. ISBN 9780599682269.
17. Rothenberg, Florie (1993). Music for clarinet and string quartet by women composers (DMA). The University of Arizona. OCLC 701556485. Retrieved 14 July 2017.
18. Ross, Alex (16 October 1996). "Milton Babbitt's Clarinet Quintet". The New York Times. New York City. Retrieved 3 February 2018.
19. Smith, Steve (1 May 2008). "Quintet of Calming Strings and a Rumbling Clarinet". The New York Times. New York City. Retrieved 3 February 2018.
20. AllMusic Review by Thom Jurek
21. atmaclassique.com – catalogue. Retrieved 13 May 2020
22. "Theodore Front Musical Literature – Quintet : For Clarinet and Strings (2015)". www.tfront.com. Retrieved 2017-02-25.
23. Rodriguez, Pablo L. (26 April 2017). "Catábasis – El compositor Jörg Widmann muestra en su "Quinteto con clarinete" su lado más íntimo y melancólico". El Pais (in Spanish). Madrid. Retrieved 18 July 2017.

External links

• Clarinet Quintets: Scores at the International Music Score Library Project
• http://clarinetquintet.web.unc.edu