Judith Bailey: Dances Op.84 for clarinet in B flat, viola & double bass

About the Composition

Dances Op.84 is an extended one-movement work of strong colours and contrasts. The style is modern but accessible, creating stark, dramatic and evocative sound worlds, underpinned with effective dance-like rhythms and a powerful drive and momentum.

The three instruments are equally important, with each acting as soloist and accompanist in equal measure, exploring a darkly-hued palette of colours and timbres. Composed in a direct, confident and rich musical language and lasting around seven minutes, Dances doesn’t outstay its welcome and is a powerful work with an assertive message to convey.

“Thinking of tonal qualities was the reason behind my choice of instruments, feeling that these three would blend well together and cover a wide range.

The opening recitatives contain the motifs for the rest of the piece, evolving, as it did naturally, into varying speeds and moods which suggested the movement of dance. Perhaps it could be thought of as an experimental exercise of how these three instruments might relate in sounds, finding their way, as it were, from the initial freely played phrases continuing on their journey towards an ending which brings them home.” [Programme note by Judith Bailey]

Your purchase includes the parts and score.

About the Composer

Judith Bailey was born in Cornwall and studied at the Royal Academy of Music in London, specialising in clarinet, piano, conducting and composition. Since 1971 she has worked freelance, conducting Petersfield Orchestra and Southampton Concert Orchestra for around thirty years, and producing a substantial amount of music which is widely performed and published.

In 2001 she returned to live and work in her native Cornwall where she is conductor of Penzance Orchestra Society and Cornwall Chamber Orchestra, and in the same year was awarded the honour of an ARAM from the Royal Academy. In 2005 she was made a Bard of the Cornish Gorseth for services to music in Cornwall.

Judith Bailey died on 16 March 2025, aged 83, following a short illness.