Music by
DANIEL DORFF
 
Three Little Waltzes for Flute and Bb Clarinet
Duration: c. 5'

DETAILS
COMMISSIONED by Cindy Anne Broz.
RECORDED on Albany Records by Leonard Garrison and Shannon Scott.

HEAR Little Waltz No. 1 from the Scott-Garrison CD; all three waltzes are on YouTube as separate tracks.
BUY from your favorite sheet music dealer or direct from Presser.

PROGRAM NOTES
THREE LITTLE WALTZES is a quirky set of surprises composed for flutist Cindy Anne Broz. The first and third waltz are each shorter than a minute and serve as a prelude and postlude for the large middle movement which is over 5 minutes.

Freshly composed in 2010, the 1st and 3rd movements are freely based on rhythmically-challenging waltzes that I wrote in high school (1974), frequently teasing between a waltz-like accompaniment and various ways of contradicting any sense of regularity, thereby providing a happy sense of arrival whenever the rhythms get back in sync.

The second movement is a sort of backwards-constructed set of variations, in which fragments are built together and tease at congealing throughout the movement, finally climaxing in a full statement of the theme for the grand finale that reveals the full theme.

UPDATES AFTER THE FIRST PRINTING
Mvt 1, bar 37: add mp cresc. for the flute
Mvt 1, bar 53: the final clarinet note is pp, not mp.
Mvt 2, bar 3: change the clarinet's nuance to "answering strongly"

REVIEWS
"Little gems with a Peter Schickele-esque whimsical quality. These duos rise above the mundane with interesting harmonic twists."
            – The Clarinet (Gregory Barrett), March 2016
Three Little Waltzes sample page
 

last updated May 25, 2026
home