My Aunt Gives Me a Clarinet Lesson (Gregory Djanikian)
soprano, flute, clarinet, violin, cello, piano, percussion
SEA-053-00 - $12.00/full score, for conductor and sopranoSEA-053-01 - $12.00/set of instrumental parts
12 minutes Commissioned by the Syracuse Society for New Music "From the worktable of composer Elizabeth Alexander...poet Gregory Djanikian's playful text, replete with musical and zoological references, was...brought to life wonderfully." - Syracuse Post-Standard
My Aunt Gives Me a Clarinet Lesson has everything in it except the kitchen sink, which is appropriate not only because Gregory Djanikian's whimsical poem cries out for a wild assortment of lecturing, howling, arpeggiating, drumming and oompah-ing, but also because the clarinet lesson itself actually takes place in a kitchen. The composer writes: "Brainstorming this menagerie of musical materials was so delightful a process that my family members kept coming into my studio to find out why I was having so much fun!"
This spirited musical fantasy can be programmed for a variety of audiences: classical music lovers, new music aficionados, schoolchildren, or concert novices.
This 12-minute work calls for strong and independent musicians on all parts, and is usually best performed with a conductor. We recommend ordering two full scores (one for the conductor and one for the soprano), and either ordering or downloading the instrumental parts.
Clarinet Part (pdf download)
Violin Part (pdf download)
Cello Part (pdf download)
Piano Part (pdf download)
Percussion Part (pdf download)
My Aunt Gives Me a Clarinet Lesson - score excerpt
"Play," my aunt said, "pianissimo."
I blew out toots and squeaks, filled the kitchen
With caterwauls, monkeys, pigs,
There was a menagerie, there were jungles.
"Why not the cello," she said, "why not drums."
"Zookeeper," my uncle said, "game warden."
I blew out ostriches, catbirds, snow geese.
"Silly boy," she said, creasing
The pages of the lesson book
"Take the gum out of your mouth,
Don't blow so hard."
There were frogs at my feet,
Boat-tailed grackles perched on the towel rack.
I could hear my cousins playing Ping-Pong in the cellar,
There was the tick tick of the oven baking bread,
And wasn't that Freddy Petrie outside
Under the maple, swinging easily on a rope
And making the branch creak?
How many metronomes there were!
"Begin again," my aunt said, "restrain,"
And snapped her fingers next to my ear.
Two mules, I counted. Three cows.
Where was Benny Goodman? Dixieland?
Which house were all the saints marching in?
Farewell, Carnegie Hall, I thought. Good-bye,
Pierson Elementary School Band. So long,
Janice Reutlinger who played the tuba.
There was a yak lowing in the doorway.
"Domesticate," my aunt said, "refine."
Freddy Petrie was riding a wild donkey
Along the blackberry bushes, waving and smiling.
The maple was becoming dangerous and colorful.
Hippopotami had come.
Soon there'd be phalaropes, merinos.
"Sonority!" my aunt cried out. "Sonority!"
And ducks. There were lots of ducks.
Copyright 1989 by Gregory Djanikian. Reprinted by permission of the poet.
If you can't see the score after the file finishes loading, click here to download the Scorch plug-in.