American Standard
for Clarinet and Piano
“…a valuable addition to the contemporary repertoire.”
— Clarinet and Saxophone Magazine, United Kingdom
American Standard, for clarinet and piano, is included on the U.K. label Clarinet Classics release “TIME PIECES: 60 Years of American Music” featuring clarinettist Peter Furniss and pianist David Leiher-Jones.
The score and part for American Standard are available for purchase online directly from the publisher Swirly Music.
Thumb Through the Score and Listen
Click below to view a complete full-screen rendering of the score. Performance audio is also embedded, so you can follow along.Audio Excerpts
The first two minutes or so lay out the lyrical, plaintive first theme of the piece. In the final few minutes, a raucous dance gives way to a lush final iteration of the second theme and a long march-like coda.Program Note
Originally written for Peter Furniss and pianist Gareth Hunt in 1993, this single-movement work has an overtly theatrical aspect, harkening back to the composer's spiritual home in musical theater. A dialogue is established between two contrasting but thematically related sections. The slow, lyrical, aching theme heard at the outset becomes interspersed with a second that is more mischievous, even grotesque in character. Constant development of this faster material provides a means of pushing forward with considerable virtuosity to the composition's rather resigned conclusion, where both themes (and moods) are finally juxtaposed.—Richard Dudas
