Thomas L. Read

Flute, Clarinet (Doubling Bass Clarinet), and Piano

Composer's Note:

What Story Awaits Its End?, for flute, clarinets and piano, composed in June 2009, presents, in succession, six contrasted compositions. Each has a different form, style and mood. The first five are all broken off, either in mid-phrase or just before an expected resolution or denouement. The sixth is a completed composition with a simple and unequivocal conclusion. Despite such formal discontinuities and, also, lack of traditional tonality, I've tried to fashion a musical totality; one that would, in the end, express a feeling of inevitability and arrival. I confess to having been inspired and challenged by a reading of Italo Calvino's novel, If on a winter's night a traveler. The work title, What Story"¦, is an adaptation of a line from one of the ten very different, interrupted stories that make up Calvino's novel.

Outline of the form:

I. The opening "story" is a duet for flute and piano cast as a sonata exposition with principle theme, bridge and subsidiary theme. Before a development section can begin, a silent pause is followed by a series of piano chords to introduce-

II. A rather austere meditation for bass clarinet and piano. Following a sudden silence a lyrical phrase for flute and piano introduces the next story-

III. A contrapuntal trio in which an extended melody is very gradually assembled from seemingly unrelated motives. When, at last, the whole melodic line coalesces it is rudely interrupted by a transitional passage, given to the piano, setting the stage harmonically for-

IV. An accompanied song by the flute with clarinet obbligato in a folkish style. Gradual disintegration of the song introduces-

V. A miniature rondo for the winds. Shortly, loud, clashing piano chords obliterate the duet. Upon resolution the chords, together with material from the earlier introductory phrases, are transformed into- VI. A full-blown theme with five variations and brief coda.