Hide and Seek – clarinet quartet

Hide and Seek (10/26/18) for quartet of clarinets [3 soprano, 1 bass] – 4’20”.  This cheerful work is a piece of program music.  Imagine three games of hide and seek.  In each game, the first clarinet seeks and the other three hide.  The first game begins with a short introduction (counting as performers hide).  It is followed by the first clarinet seeking the others (in long notes) as they chuckle and scramble about while not being found.  It ends with “All-ee, All-ee, in free” – successive sustained Cs in rising octaves by the first clarinet and rising staccato figures by the others as they come in free.  The second game is longer and begins more aggressively with running passages from the first clarinet.  In this game the first clarinet finds the second clarinet, and they join, as a duet, in the hunt.  Mocking calls (in dotted rhythms) from both pairs result in the third clarinet being found.  But the bass clarinet remains hidden, leading solo passages against the upper voices.  The game ends with the bass clarinet still free.   The last game begins immediately with a return of the counting introduction.  Here, however, the first clarinet is not as happy, having lost the previous games, and the themes are heard in minor.  Although this game is destined to end like the first game, everything returns to major.  The point, after all, was to have fun.

Medium Difficulty 

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To listen to the piece, click here.