Eat Your Vegetables

2014 // 4'
for solo clarinet
composed for Stanley Drucker (NY Philharmonic)
premiered Nov. 16, 2014 with the American Chamber Ensemble
at Christ & St. Stephen's Church, New York

Program Note:

Eat Your Vegetables is my first piece for solo melodic instrument. As such, it represents a new approach for me: the goal was to make texture out of melody. My primary tool in doing so is rhythm, and each section of the piece has its own rhythmic language. The large-scale form emerges from strange juxtapositions between material, much of which flirts with crassness.

This piece was composed for Stanley Drucker, longtime first clarinetist of the New York Philharmonic--its bright cheekiness is in honor of him and his inimitable playing. I knew when composing the piece that he would make it his own, and he certainly has.

Instrumentation:

solo clarinet in B-flat