Gateway

In composing Gateway, I really wanted to capture the life that flows throughout St. Louis.  I envisioned city nightlife as I composed the piece, both dark and sultry, and bright and vivacious.  The result is a heavily jazz inspired romp for clarinet and piano, which I found to be fitting of The Sheldon’s embrace of diverse musical genres and art forms.  The piece begins in the piano: low, slow, and bluesy.  The clarinet begins to pull at this feel, becoming wilder and wilder, forcing the piano to follow suit.  The piece is built around the interplay of these two voices, sometimes playfully at odds with each other, building until the climactic end.

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Duration: 7 min.