Clarinet Sonatina, Op.29 (1951)

Furioso

There is no composer more expert than Sir Malcolm Arnold in writing for wind instruments and - bearing in mind his prodigious output of concertos for woodwind or brass soloists - few more experienced. As well as the eleven wind concertos, there is an extensive catalogue of wind chamber music, including four well characterised Sonatinas for various woodwind instruments and piano. The Clarinet Sonatina - first performed by Colin Davis (before he took up conducting and became Sir Colin Davis) and Geoffrey Corbett in 1951 - is a particularly brilliant example, most effectively exploiting the spectacular agility of the instrument, its wide dynamic range and its jazzy associations.

Set in motion by a flourish on the clarinet and a vigorously syncopated tattoo on the piano, the opening Allegro con brio packs a variety of thematic and textural ideas into its brief duration, including a characteristically impudent clarinet intervention over a vamped piano part as a kind of second subject. On its recall at the end of the movement it is not so much impudent, however, as subdued. The outer sections of the Andantino draw on the lyrical voice of the clarinet in its upper register while the middle section, stimulated by the percussive attitude of the piano, explores the dramatic potential of its bottom (chalumeau) register. Described variously as a “polacca” and a “furiant,” the closing Furioso is certainly East-European in its inspiration and apparently, to judge by the lashing dissonances in the middle and at the end, aggressive in intent.