Rachmaninoff's Vocalise for clarinet quartet

Rachmaninoff's vocalise No. 14 from opus 34 is a widely known piece. Romantic and beautiful and full of very dense and intricated harmonies. A joy to listen to but not always an easy piece to perform given its delicatness and complexity.

I made an arrangement for clarinet quartet (3 clarinets and a bass clarinet). It was not an easy task since the piano harmony is extremely dense and full of cromaticism which works well on the piano but requires some work with the balance on the clarinets. However I think it is a very nice piece to perform and once you have worked out all those chromatic passages and dissonances and understood them, it works well. Probably it will take a couple of repetitions (depending with your level and familiarity with late romantic chromaticism) before the music start to appears in its full beauty.

As usual I also include the Sibelius source file so that you can edit the score if you wish so. If you do it, please drop me a line and let me know. I am eager to listen and learn from your suggestions.

Download free sheet music for Rachmaninoff's vocalise for clarinet quartet

Happy playing!

Bach Sarabande for Clarinet Solo

The Sarabande from the 5th sonata for cello suite is one of Bach's greatest masterpieces. The lines and the rhythmes are simple but at the same they create a complete universe. I could not withstand the urge to play this masterpiece on the clarinet.

As all pieces that have simplicity as one of their main strengths, it is very approachable technically but extremely hard to play from a musical point of view. In other words, a piece that you can carry with you and practice all your life without getting bored and without reaching perfection...

It is also a great study in legato and expressivity. The range of my transcription is E3 to G5 which means that you can play the repeats one octave up if you wish so, to make this piece a complete legato exercise over the whole clarinet range.

The ZIP file here below includes the piece as PDF, MIDI file, and source score in Sibelius format.

Download free sheet music for Bach Sarabande adapted to clarinet solo

Nice playing to you all!

Clarinet tutorials by David Hattner

Under the curious name of AmericanClownAcademy you can find some recordings and tutorials for the clarinet. Among which a series of legato lessons by David Hattner. The series is made of 6 lessons of which 4 are available at time of writing. Even if the sound is not top quality these is undoubtetly an interesting tutorial.

I post here the first lesson on legato playing, to access the rest please follow this link:

Click here to watch the clarinet teaching material and recordings on YouTube

Piano Accompaniment for Weber's Concerto Op. 73

I publish here the MP3 files of piano accompaniment for the first two movements of Weber's Concerto Op 73 in F-moll. It is recorded from my Electric Piano from a very high quality MIDI files with dynamic nuances, phrasing and pedal.

Download free MP3 files for piano accompaniment of Weber's Concerto No. 1 in f-moll

Enjoy it!

"Duet for Solo Clarinet" by Steven Gerber

Steven Gerber's duet for solo clarinet is a very interesting piece. The idea of playing a duet on one clarinet (by alternating the 2 voices) is challenging. The piece uses standard clarinet technique (no multiphones).

Steven Gerber's web site with download link to PDF score and link to MP3 recording of his "Duet for Solo Clarinet".

On Steven Gerber's web site you can download the complete score as PDF and you can also follow a link to listen to a really excellent recording of the piece by Peter Furniss.

A goldmine for clarinet sheet music

The website of Adriano Amore is a goldmine of clarinet sheet music. The site is in Italian and dedicated to the italian clarinet tradition of which Adriano is a recognized expert. However for those of you who cannot read italian, do not despair, on Adriano's website there is lots of sheet music to download and recordings to listen to.

The free section of his website provides free downloadable scores as a clarinet duet of Rossini, a sonata of Gherardeschi for clarinet trio, two scores for clarinet quartets of Giampieri and Monti, and a magnificient transcription of the ouverture of "La Traviata" of Verdi for clarinet ensemble. On this same page you will also find many more music scores for clarinet playing with other instruments.

One page is dedicated to pedagogical material ("didattica" in italian) with for instance lots of downloadable sheet music with orchestral passages.

One page is dedicated MIDI files ready to download and then under "Ascoltami" ("Listen to me") you can hear Adriano playing from his CD. Under spartiti (music scores) you can see some sample of few of the many historical scores that Adriano collected and that can be order in 2 DVDs for those of you interested and curious about the Italian clarinet tradition.

Clarinet ensembles publishing music online

Webpages of clarinet ensembles sharing their own recordings online:

STARK QUARTET - Quartetto di clarinetti italiano
(Nice performance of "Largo al factotum" of Rossini)

ORCHESTRA MEDITERRANEA DI CLARINETTI
(listen to the arrangement of the Preludio from the opera La Traviata!)

Do you have or know a clarinet ensemble with an homepage where you can listen to clarinet music? Post a comment or send an email and I'll add it to this post.