Changes

Written for a clarinettist friend, Alistair Watson, a medical professor and good amateur clarinettist, back in 2004. At the time, Alistair and I had no useable repertoire to hand and so I decided to tackle this problem. I wrote "Changes" along with "Four Jazz Waltzes" (unpublished) over a 1 week period. This piece serves to provide a melodic concert-typical composition in a jazz idiom - while still retaining a pleasing classical ABA formal structure. The piece also serves to address the problem of guitar in combination with clarinet where modulation to different keys may disadvantage the guitar in accompaniment output volume. Hence the title "Changes" emanates from my attempt to freely modulate - or at the very least, move into harmony areas freely while the guitar retains hints of idiomatic writing. As it happens the piece is central around the key of C major with a mid-section which prevails in C sharp minor. Additionally I wanted to provide study sight-reading for the dedicatee and decided on mixed 5 and 6 beat meter and all the possibilities for stressed beats that that entails. In terms of influence the choice of 5-beat meter may give a clue as pointing toward the Dave Brubeck classic "Take Five" , and this would be correct.