Will Rowe

Clarinet

Triptych (2018) was written as a collaboration between composer Will Rowe and clarinetist Bixby Kennedy. Having worked together on various other projects during their time as colleagues at Indiana University, they grew acutely familiar with each other’s musical sensibilities, and sought to manifest that relationship in the form of a new piece.

A bit of a sidestep from his usual process, Triptych operates more in the abstract than the bulk of Will’s current work. While the bulk of Will’s catalog comprises more tangible, terrestrial ideas realized in music, Triptych simply explores a set of playful characters and allows them to take shape in capricious, earnest, free-spirited ways. As the pieces fell into place, the work revealed itself to be a set of three variations on each other, falling neatly in line with traditional triptych form.