Elegy for a Clown - 56K




(3:10). This is an original composition for Trombone and Clarinet that I wrote, in collaboration with Don Appert, in 1969. I was a High School Senior studying music theory, and this was my first (and pretty much only) attempt to compose what I considered to be a piece of modern "twentieth-century" music, with heavy usage of harmonic dissonance and rhythmic and dynamic extremes. I find this piece interesting... Send me an email from the music page, and let me know what you think.

I have 2 recordings of this piece. The first was a studio recording made in the summer of 1970, with my friend Don Appert on Trombone (see "Essay for Trombone and Orchestra" for more details about Don) and (the great, and now pretty famous) Murray Colossimo on Bb Clarinet. Mr. Colossimo was our High School (Ridgewood, NJ) Band and Orchestra director that year, and he was also kind enough to serve as a teacher to me on Clarinet and Music Theory in my senior year of High School (1969-70). Don and Murray are two of the finest musicians around, and many of you, I'm sure, have heard, or at least heard of, them. This first studio recording is the selection you are now listening to (assuming you have Real Audio installed, a sound card that works, your speakers are turned on...)

The second recording, which you are definitely not listening to now, was a live performance recorded on April 25, 1974 at the Colby College (Waterville, Maine) Student Composition Concert. It featured Gordon Bowie (our College Band director) on Trombone, and myself on Bb Clarinet. But, the recording quality of that performance was poor, and I decided to use the studio version from 4 years earlier instead.

I dedicate this composition to Gordon W. Bowie.


Twilight Dreams Music PageBack to the Twilight Dreams Music Page.