Australian Music Centre | Breaking sound barriers

Work Overview

After commissioning my 'Duo Sonata' for clarinet and piano, the virtuoso Australian clarinettist Bailey Hume asked me for a follow-up encore-style piece. We had been discussing influences on the 'Sonata' and Eric Dolphy's name came up, the famous American bass clarinettist in Herbie Hancock's early jazz group, who was also unforgettably homaged in Zappa's humorous and complex 'The Eric Dolphy Memorial Barbecue' from his album 'Weasels Ripped My Flesh'. Dolphy's agile and lyrical interpretations of jazz standards and innovative extended techniques are evoked in Dolphy's Arf, along with later work of Zappa's, specifically the extraordinarily rhythmic track 'Echidna's Arf', with its Australian monotreme reference, which carries on the environmental concern of the 'Duo', specifically species extinction due to human hubris.

Work Details

Year: 2026

Instrumentation: Bass clarinet in B Flat.

Duration: 5 min.

Difficulty: Advanced — agility with slap tonguing required

Commission note: Commissioned by and dedicated to Bailey Hume