Concert Piece for Bassoon and Piano
Item
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Score title
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Concert Piece for Bassoon and Piano
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Composer
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Libby Larsen
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Program note
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In three movements, Concert Piece for Bassoon and Piano casts the bassoon in the role of minstrel/poet—a Broadway Bard, if you will—who has gathered us for a Tell about our culture’s expressiveness.
Our expressiveness, the way we speak, move, and communicate, is a deeply lyrical narrative combined with a syncopated, percussive, multi-inflected, and driving nature. I composed the music from this perspective.
The first movement of Concert Piece for Bassoon and Piano uses inflection and articulation to define the bassoon’s lyric melody as it moves over and around the piano’s driving, jazz-articulated music. Time and forward motion are suspended in the second movement, allowing room for the bassoon’s broadly lyrical lines to sing freely and emotionally. Bassoon and piano come together in the third movement for syncopated interplay in an abstract call-and-response dance.
Libby Larsen