Clarinet Sonata in E flat major Op.167 (1921)

The French tradition of music for woodwind and piano, though uncommonly distinguished, has a comparatively short history. It can claim nothing of the venerability of Schumann’s Phantasiestücke or Brahms’s Clarinet Sonatas. No major French composer produced anything remotely comparable until 1921 when Saint-Saëns, in the last year of his life, added not only his Clarinet Sonata in E flat but also an Oboe Sonata in D and a Bassoon Sonata in G to a glaringly scanty woodwind repertoire.

The Clarinet Sonata is shaped with characteristic elegance as a cyclic construction in four movements. The most seductive material, the wistful melody introduced in the opening bars by the clarinet, is also the most influential from the long-term point of view. It has no influence, however, over the Allegro animato, which is an impulsive scherzo based on two alternating ideas. The Lento third movement presents a stark contrast. It is a solemn chorale in E flat minor introduced by heavy octaves at the bottom end of the keyboard and given a specially sombre tinge by the chalumeau register of the clarinet. But even before Saint-Saëns takes the chorale to the other extreme, it proves to have a phrase or two in common with the opening theme of the work. It is the function of the last movement to restore that melody to prominence – first in a surprisingly passionate episode in E flat minor and finally in its original tempo and E flat major harmonies in a serenely conclusive Allegretto epilogue.

The French tradition of music for woodwind and piano, though uncommonly distinguished, has a comparatively short history. It can claim nothing of the venerability of Schumann’s Phantasiestücke or Brahms’s    Clarinet Sonatas. Apart from Debussy in his First Rhapsody no major French composer produced anything remotely comparable until 1921 when Saint-Saëns, in the last year of his life, added not only his Clarinet Sonata in E flat but also an Oboe Sonata in D and a Bassoon Sonata in G to a glaringly scanty woodwind repertoire.

The Clarinet Sonata is shaped with characteristic elegance as a cyclic construction in four movements. The most seductive material, the wistful melody introduced in the opening bars by the clarinet, is also the most influential from the long-term point of view. It has no influence, however, over the Allegro animato, which is a lively scherzo based on two alternating ideas. The Lento third movement presents a stark contrast. It is a solemn chorale in E flat minor introduced by heavy octaves at the bottom end of the keyboard and given a specially sombre tinge by the chalumeau register of the clarinet. But even before Saint-Saëns takes the chorale to the opposite extremes of pitch and dynamics, it proves to have a phrase or two in common with the opening theme of the work. The function of the last movement is to restore that melody to prominence – first in a surprisingly passionate and impulsively changeable Molto allegro and finally in its original tempo and E flat major harmonies in a serenely conclusive Allegretto epilogue.

The French tradition of music for woodwind and piano, though uncommonly distinguished, has a comparatively short history. Even in Germany it was more than forty years before Brahms followed up on Schumann’s Phantasiestücke with his two Clarinet Sonatas. But, apart from Debussy in his First Rhapsody, no major French composer produced anything remotely comparable until 1921 when Saint-Saëns, in the last year of his life, added not only his Clarinet Sonata in E flat but also an Oboe Sonata in D and a Bassoon Sonata in G to a glaringly scanty woodwind repertoire.

Dedicated to Auguste Perrier, a Professor at the Conservatoire, the Saint-Saëns Clarinet Sonata is idiomatically and resourcefully written for the clarinet and shaped with characteristic elegance as a cyclic construction in four movements. The most seductive material, the wistful melody introduced in the opening bars by the clarinet over gently undulating E flat major harmonies on the piano, is also the most influential from the long-term point of view. On a suggestion from the piano, it inspires the brilliant fantasia in the middle of the movement and it returns towards the end to take its due place in a discreetly varied and extended reprise of the opening section. It has no influence, however, over the Allegro animato, which is an impulsive scherzo based on two alternating ideas, a sort of gavotte tricked out with cheerful arpeggios and a witty exploitation of the clarinet’s facility in bouncing between its upper and lower registers.

The Lento third movement presents a stark contrast. It is a solemn chorale in E flat minor introduced by heavy octaves at the bottom end of the keyboard and sounding more Russian then French both in the shape of its melodic line and in the sombre colouring laid on by the chalumeau register of the clarinet. But even before Saint-Saëns takes the chorale to the other extreme, pianissimo and at the upper end of the range of both instruments, it proves to have a phrase or two in common with the opening theme of the work. It is a timely reminder since it is the function of the last movement to restore that melody to prominence – first in a passionate episode in E flat minor surprisingly interposed between debonair passages of runs and arpeggios on the clarinet and finally in its original tempo and E flat major harmonies in a serenely conclusive Allegretto epilogue.