Meditation for Clarinet and Piano Op. 7

Composed: 1999-2000

Duration: 5 minutes

First Performance: August 2000, by Joe Romano (Clarinet) and Graham Lloyd (Piano), San Mateo, California

This work originates from an unpublished piano composition dating from 1990. It is a profoundly lyrical work that engages the listener with a panoply of emotions that pass from wistful melancholy to sadness and longing, through to defiant optimism at the work's conclusion.

The piece follows an extended ABA structure, with the principal melodic ideas presented at the outset by both clarinet and piano. These ideas lead to a plaintive middle section that finds its catharsis in a passionate climax. The return of the work's opening material is developed and elaborated upon as it leads inexorably to a declamatory and uplifting coda.