Zoe & Xena A Romp in the Park for Piccolo and Bass Clarinet

When Leonard Garrison and Shannon Scott were planning their CD of my flute/clarinet music, they both wondered if the composer of TWO CATS might be interested in writing a sequel celebrating their two dogs, Xena and Zoe, young and exuberant Labrador retrievers. However, we had enough music for the CD already and a timeline to follow, so this interesting thought wasn't mentioned again.

A few months after the CD came out, Leonard phoned to propose the "two dogs sequel" as a secretly commissioned gift for Shannon. I was eager to write a new piece for them, but not another flute/clarinet duet. The solution was a perfect win-win; composing a duo for piccolo and bass clarinet would create repertoire for a neglected and ripe instrumentation, and the powerful energy inherent in this combination would be ideal to depict the gleeful gait of young retrievers running free in a big field.