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Duration: c. 9½'
DETAILS
COMMISSIONED by Sherry Hartman-Apgar.
PREMIERED by the Temple University Chamber Players: Sherry-Apgar Eb clarinet,
Lisa Pressman piano, April 21, 1982.
AVAILABLE from your favorite sheet music dealer, or direct from Presser.
RECORDED on Albany Records by Elizabeth Crawford and Lori Rhoden.
RECORDED on KTM label (Japan) by Tomomi Hiratsuka and Saeko Miyasho.
Texas UIL Prescribed Music List for all-state audition repertoire.
YOUTUBE
of Elizabeth Crawford's CD.
YOUTUBE
performance by Mark Margolies and Corry Bell.
PROGRAM NOTES
In 1981, I had
recently joined the Haddonfield Symphony as bass clarinetist, where the Eb
clarinetist was Sherry Hartman-Apgar who was finishing a performance degree at
Temple University. Before long, Sherry invited me to write her a recital piece
for Eb clarinet with piano, which I was eager and ready to dive into.
While
daydreaming
about how to create a work uniquely in the spirit of the Eb clarinet, I happened
to see a magazine ad for a new line of Sony home stereo amplifiers claiming
their control knobs glide so smoothly that a mouse could turn them. The ad had a
photo of an adorable mouse standing up using the stereo.
At the same
time, I'd been thinking that the squeaky and melodramatic use of Eb clarinet in
Till Eulenspiegel was also a fun model to parody for the Eb clarinet as
protagonist.
These ideas
quickly fused, bearing a programmatic excuse to write a recital piece with
strong influence from Led Zeppelin and Chuck Berry, about a mouse who goes to a dance
party, dances up a storm with various girl mice, until he finally keels over
fatally,
gently ascending to heaven in the coda. I also hoped this could later be
animated in the brilliantly surreal style of Max and Dave Fleischer's cartoons
of the 1930s.
THE SCENARIO
Introduction (m. 1): Mr. Mouse enters a dance club
and eyes a fashionably chic and glamorous girl mouse, full of superficial
sizzle.
Dance 1 (m. 9): They dance for awhile, and there is much flirting and
teasing, which leads only to increased flirting and teasing. Mr. Mouse is easily
distracted by...
Dance 2 (m. 50): ... a much more sophisticated lady (plucked whiskers)
interested only in imported cheeses, oldstyle swing music and dance, and the
spotlight. While off to fetch her brie, he is distracted by...
Dance 3 (m. 104): ... a sweet young thing, with big pink eyes and graceful
ears that tug at his heart. They fall in love instantly, and he croons a
romantic ballad. By the end of the song however,
she fades from his imagination, revealing that he's only hallucinated her
fantasized existence.
Mr. Mouse's Dance of Death (m. 150): A very charismatic bad-girl mouse
sees him dejected and lonely, picking him out as eager prey. She sweeps him off
his feet, exciting him into a choreographic frenzy. They lead each other into
wilder and wilder dancing until he keels over fatally, at which point his immortal parts
ascend peacefully into the mousie heavens.
REVIEWS
"Dorff's work presents a variety of shifting styles and moods including jazzy dance-like melodies and swinging technical passages. The 10-minute piece with jazz, rock, swing, and ballad sections is delightfully programmatic, and Crawford and Rhoden deliver a convincing performance.
– The Clarinet (Karen Dannessa), March 2020
"Daniel Dorff has written a most attractive work for the often-neglected Eb clarinet – at least when it comes to solo repertoire. As someone who held an orchestral position on Eb some years ago it was great to be provoked into taking the piccolo clarinet out again after years of neglect. It really was fun to play through this piece. It's not particularly difficult for a professional player and would certainly add variety and color to a recital program. It does go up to altissimo A towards the end, so for non-Eb players it will take a little while to get your chops in shape to play it. However, it certainly is worth the effort. The publisher describes it thus: "... using rock-infused themes and the squealing glory of the Eb clarinet... this dance suite, which is at once entertaining, and also a striking recital work... setting the tale of an exuberant mouse dancing himself to an early demise."
– The Clarinet (Paul Roe), March 2005
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