Allen Shawn

Flute, Clarinet, and Piano

Composer's Note:

This piece was composed in 1994 for English twin sisters Catherine and Helen Sauders (flutist and clarinetist, respectively) with whom I played the premiere at the Greenwich House Music School. They had been planning a trip to the U.S., and we were in touch about the music as I worked on it, but I met them for the first time on the day of the concert. The music is quite tonal and there is a decidedly French cast to all three movements, with a great deal of lighthearted counterpoint in the opening and gigue-like finale, and in the lyrically mournful slow movement. Although I had not set out to deliberately evoke Poulenc's language in the piece, I added "Hommage to Poulenc" after the title as a recognition of his influence. Auden says somewhere that you are never more yourself than when you imitate. As stylized, joyful and perhaps even escapist as this work is, it was written with genuine enthusiasm and involvement, and therefore makes a personal statement.