Commissioned by Brent Ghiglione and the University of Regina Wind Ensemble, Pauline Minevich, and a Consortium of 11 other commissioners.
When Pauline Minevich and I discussed what form the concerto should take, we decided on a suite of dances representing time and place with music from ages past and different countries. Movement 1, Baroque Boogie, brings us back several hundred years and It wasn't until I started writing it that I realized how much we have in common with Bach. I think this is why his music is so ageless and the devices he used centuries ago work just as well today. I thought I'd make it even more Baroque by including a little fughetta in the middle. Pauline loves world music so the second movement, Brazilian Samba, opens with the waterfalls, birds, and overall ambiance of a Brazilian rainforest acting as an introduction to the samba beat and solo clarinet. You can't get more American than a clarinet getting mixed up in Blues and Dixieland for movement three, Blue Dixie. I added a little joke, using a familiar tune everybody knows from their childhood plunkings on the piano Movement four, Meandering Minuet, is as if the clarinettist is wandering through the Minuet Shop, trying a bit from one or another piece, mixing and matching. There are a number of cliché clarinet parts, like the Alberti bass that was common during that period but the clarinettist can't seem to settle down to a style or even a key. And finally, Pauline wanted a Klesmer movement since she and her husband, violinist Ed Minevich, have played in Klesmer bands in the past and have the style down, not to mention the clarinet is one of the principal Klesmer instruments with a technique all its own bringing the concerto to a very rousing and personal finish. There are two versions of this movement in case a Klesmer violinist isn't handy. The flute and saxophone takes up the violin part.