A Time On My Island Of Art by Malcolm Smith

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A Time On My Island Of Art for clarinet and cello (2000) 3'25"

(Sonata for Tim and Emily)

This piece has an anagrammatical subtitle, as it was written for clarinettist Tim Orpen and cellist Emily Cavey, whose playing impressed me at a BMIC concert given at Stratford Place in London by students from Wells Cathedral School on 2000-02-08 (the same event that inspired Valiant Steps).

It uses the technique of harmonic poetry from my piano piece Message (1994) fairly strictly throughout, except for the expansive central Sublime section which wanders off on its own little journey and somehow reminds me of Aaron Copland's "Clarinet Concerto", before it even quotes my own song The Wounded Nurse. Many thanks to Valerio Fissore, Professor of English at Turin University, for his advice on Italian phrases used in the piece - how about this for moodswings, all within three minutes:

Con brio = with spirit
Grazioso = gracefully
Sublime = sublime
Lontano e increspatura come duna di sabbia = distant and rippled like dunes in the desert ;-)
Fragile = fragile
Jazz = a universal language...
Serioso = serious
Amabile = amiable
Gioioso = joyous

I sent a copy of this score to their school, but maybe was too late as I never heard back. It was premiered and recorded by clarinettist Sarah Saunders and cellist Vicki Harding in a concert at The Ship Studio, Dartington Hall, August 2000, along with my piano piece Message.

Scores and recordings will eventually be available on request once I get my music computer fully operational.
[This page is longing for the day when scores and audio samples will be added...]