Some clarinet repertoire
There is a big diversity of styles, difficulty, and probably quality here: I've tried to indicate something of this (in my opinion) in the comments at least for some pieces. Hopefully they all have something going for them. I have played most of them at some time or other, but can remember more about some than others.
| All pieces on the list | Solo clarinet only | Clarinet and piano only |
= approximate timing in minutes (')
Pieces are for clarinet and piano unless marked:
* = solo clarinet
! =
instrumentation other than clarinet/piano
Alphabetical contents (composer's surname):
.A.B.C.D.F.G.H.I.K.L.M.N.O.P.R.S.T.W
Malcolm Arnold - Sonatina for clarinet and piano.
* Malcolm Arnold - Fantasy for solo clarinet, for solo clarinet.
.B return to top of listing
Victor Babin - Hillandale Waltzes.
Belá Bartók - Romanian Folk Dances. Well known arrangements, played a lot also by violinists and others. Short pieces, nicely contrasted and characterised.
Arnold Bax - Sonata for clarinet and piano. Very distinctive style, richly harmonised
Arthur Benjamin - Le Tombeau de Ravel. Excellent, modern take on Ravel's
Richard Rodney Bennett - Duo Concertante. This is a complex and quite modern work - very different in style from his better-known pieces. Interesting piece.
Alban Berg - Three Pieces for clarinet and piano.
Norbert Bergmüller - Duo, for clarinet and piano. ~ 12'. Nice piece in classical style and ternary form
Leonard Bernstein - Sonata for clarinet and piano. Recognisably Bernstein, if perhaps more obviously classical. Quite light in texture, and generally.
Arthur Bliss - Pastorale.
York Bowen - Sonata for clarinet and piano. Big piece, full-blooded English Romantic style. Excellent piece
Johannes Brahms - Sonata in E flat, for clarinet and piano. Classic Brahms at his most thoughtful. Core repertoire
Johannes Brahms - Sonata in F major, for clarinet and piano. Like the E flat sonata, this is a cornerstone of the repertoire.
Ferrucio Busoni - Elegy.
.C return to top of listing
Arnold Cook - Sonatina for clarinet and piano. Very nicely crafted piece in 20th-century English pastoral style
Louis Cahuzac - Variations sur un air de pay d'oc.
Aaron Copland - Clarinet concerto. Big piece, virtuosic, and in Copland's distinctively American style.
Bernhard Crusell - Clarinet Concerto no. 1 in E flat major. Good classical-style concerto
.D return to top of listing
Claude Debussy - Première Rhapsody. Core repertoire. Somewhat impressionistic
Paul Dukas - Alla Gitana. Gipsy-inspired material, in a classical/romantic casting
.F return to top of listing
Gerald Finzi - 5 Bagatelles. Core repertoire. Excellent pieces
Gerald Finzi - 5 Bagatelles. Larger-scale, more involved and more virtuosic than the Bagatelles (as you'd expect from the titles).
Jean Françaix - Theme and Variations. Post-impressionist (sort-of: Françaix was a great harmonist, but that's probably where the similarity ends), very witty and fun. Specifically for clarinet in A, with piano
Jean Françaix - Clarinet Concerto. On a much larger scale than the
G return to top of listing
Nils Gade - Fantasy Pieces, for clarinet and piano. Late classical / early Romantic
Gabriel Grovlez - Clarinet Concerto. Fairly light French romantic.
Carlos Guastavino - Tonada y Cueca. Argentinian.
.H return to top of listing
* Paul Harvey - Fantasia on Themes of George Gershwin, for solo clarinet.
* Kenneth Hesketh - Aphorisms, for solo clarinet.
Paul Hindemith - Sonata for clarinet and piano. Substantial four-movement piece: modern-ish, tonal, quite dry harmonically
Jospeh Horovitz - Sonatina for clarinet and piano. Superb, light English-style, richly coloured with some jazz influence. Three movements.
Herbert Howells - Sonata for clarinet and piano. Two movements but very large-scale. Dark and unsettled writing from one of Britain's most distinctive 20th Century composers. Specifically for clarinet in A, with piano
William Hurlstone - Four Characteristic Pieces. Excellent short pieces, in English Romantic style, ahead of its time (late 19th/ early 20th Century)
.I return to top of listing
John Ireland - Fantasy-Sonata. Published by: Boosey and Hawkes. ~ approx 20'. Big single-movement work, Unsettled, thoughtful, highly
worked English style with lots of harmonic and
timbral colour, somewhat post-Debussy-esque.
Excellent piece; core repertoire
K return to top of listing
* Béla Kovács - Hommages, for solo clarinet. Humourous and varied studies each loosely linked in style to a different composer
František (Franz) Krommer - Clarinet concerto no. 1, op. 36. Good classical-style concerto
! František (Franz) Krommer - Concerto for two clarinets, op. 91.
.L return to top of listing
William Lloyd-Webber - Air and Variations. Light English style; easy technically and in its character
Donato Lovreglio - Fantasia on Verdi's "Masked Ball", op. 46. 19th-Century mainly technical showpiece, typical of the Opera-based fantasies of that time
Donato Lovreglio - Fantasia on "I Puritani". 19th-Century mainly technical showpiece, typical of the Opera-based fantasies of that time
Witold LutosŁaski - Dance Preludes. Five short pieces, quirky and entertaining, modern and distinctive, with strong Polish folk roots. Not difficult. Excellent pieces
.M return to top of listing
Bohuslav Martinů - Sonatina for clarinet and piano. Very distinctive piece: tonal but modern and motoric. Very good piece
John McCabe - Three Pieces. Interesting; quite contemporary in style without being avant-garde
André Messager - Solo de Concours. Late Classical / early Romantic French conservatoire test-piece
Darius Milhaud - Duo Concertante. Short, quite angular, A-B-A (fastish-slow-fastish) form. Has some nice melodic and harmonic touches
Johann Molter - Clarinet concerti. Good classical pieces, not very long. Originally for D clarinet
Wolfgang Mozart - Clarinet concerti. Core repertoire.
Robert Muczynski - Time Pieces. Modern American style, subtly based on the idea of time and clocks. Four pieces, lots of colour and interest. Many thanks to Louise Bartle for introducing me to these pieces.
.N return to top of listing
Carl Nielsen - Clarinet concerto. Big piece, interesting and enigmatic. The obbligato sidedrum part comes with it and is an integral part of the piece even with piano reduction.
Mario Nuovo-Tedesco - Sonata for clarinet and piano. Good piece. Has some elements of Italian style and some of (not very heavy) modern style
.O return to top of listing
* Willson Osborne - Rhapsody, for solo clarinet. Published by: Peters. Originally for solo bassoon - works well on clarinet
.P return to top of listing
Astor Piazzolla - Tango-Études.
Paul Pierné - Andante et Scherzo. Published by: Boosey and Hawkes.
Francis Poulenc - Sonata for clarinet and piano. Published by: Chester Music. Excellent piece - typical of Poulenc's distinctive style and harmonic language - a sort of quirky antidote to Impressionism... Core repertoire.
! Francis Poulenc - Sonata for two clarinets, for two clarinets (unaccompanied). Published by: Boosey and Hawkes. In Poulenc's distinctive style and harmonic language - a sort of quirky antidote to Impressionism... Interesting piece.
.R return to top of listing
Alan Richardson - Roundelay. Uncomplicated twentieth-century English style, very nicely crafted.
Paquito Rivera, d' - Valse Venezolano et Contredanza.
Gioachino Rossini - Introduction, Theme and Variations.
Nina Rota - Sonata for clarinet and piano. Nice piece - straightforward in style, with some nice surprises
.S return to top of listing
Camille Saint-Saëns - Sonata for clarinet and piano. Easy-going style, not difficult technically either
* Giacinto Scelsi - Ixor, for solo clarinet. Modern and complex solo piece
! Franz Schubert - The Shepherd on the Rock, for voice, clarinet and piano. Classic (accompanied) duo between voice and clarinet
Robert Schumann - Three Fantasy Pieces. Subtle and thoughtful character pieces
Robert Schumann - Three Romances. These are character pieces - like the Schumann Fantasy Pieces, there's lots of depth in these. Great pieces.
Louis Spohr - Clarinet Concerto in C minor. Good, characterful, classical concerto.
Louis Spohr - Variations on themes from the opera Alruna.
Louis Spohr - Variations on themes from the opera Alruna.
! Louis Spohr - Sechs deutsche Lieder fur Singstimme, Klarinette und Klavier, op. 103.
Carl Stamitz - Clarinet Concerto.
Charles Stanford - Three Intermezzi, for clarinet and piano. Excellent early Romantic, English pieces
Charles Stanford - Sonata for clarinet and piano. Early Romantic, English piece; quite large-scale, very nicely crafted
* Igor Stravinsky - Three pieces, for solo clarinet. Very distinctive, highly effective. Needs B flat and A clarinets.
* Heinrich Sutermeister - Capriccio, for solo clarinet. Good short solo piece, with some effective rhetoric
.T return to top of listing
Germaine Taillaferre - Arabesque. Short, simple piece, not without some harmonic subtlety, with some effective
Giuseppi Tartini arr. Gordon Jacob - Concerto. Very effective arrangement of a good Baroque piece
.W return to top of listing
James Waterson - Morceau de Concert.
Karl Weber - Grand Duo Concertante. Big work, very much a duo, with lots of typically Weber-style operatic drama. Excellent piece
Karl Weber - Grand Duo Concertante. Big work, very much a duo, with lots of typically Weber-style operatic drama. Excellent piece; core repertoire
Karl Weber - Clarinet Concerto no. 1. Fine piece. Core repertoire
Karl Weber - Clarinet Concerto no. 2. Fine piece. Core repertoire
Karl Weber - Silvana Variations. Interesting, if perhaps less successful as a piece than Weber's better-known clarinet works
Leo Weiner - Peregi Verbunk. A very good example of the gypsy (Czardas) style.
Leo Weiner - Two Movements, for clarinet and piano.
Judith Weir - Sketches from a Bagpiper's Album.
Philip Wilby - Paganini-Rosenthal Variations. Fun, modern piece, a series of brief character sketches of musical antiquarian Albi Rosenthal, his family, and his cats. Subtle and complex, very entertaining.
Ralph Vaughan Williams - Six Studies in English Folksong. Archetypal English Pastoral style.
Zhang Wu - Variations on a Chinese folksong.