Clarinet Concerto (Copland)
Movements
2 movements played back-to-back, linked by a cadenza
Notes
Copland acknowledged that his signature “bittersweet lyricism” like in the 1st movement of the Clarinet Concerto may have been influenced by his feelings of loneliness and social alienation over his homosexuality. Copland writes: “The instrumentation being clarinet with strings, harp, and piano, I did not have a large battery of percussion to achieve jazzy effects, so I used slapping basses and whacking harp sounds to simulate them. The Clarinet Concerto ends with a fairly elaborate coda in C major that finishes off with a clarinet glissando – or “smear” in jazz lingo.”
