Humphrey Clucas: Sonatina for double bass & piano

About the Composition

Sonatina is a short three-movement work composed for Double Bass 2000 and was premiered at Wells Cathedral School. Aimed at the intermediate bassist, this is a work brimming with lyrical episodes and good humor, alongside rhythmic interest and momentum, exploiting the rich middle register of the double bass and with a few short forays into low thumb position.

"My Sonatina, a brief frivolous piece, was partly written to exploit the range of the double bass, both its lower and upper reaches. The first movement is in strict sonata form - exposition, repeat and all. The second movement is tongue-in-cheek 18th-century form; the sonatina is a very 19th-century form. Its main theme turns up again as the middle section of the final movement, a tiny waltz. Other snatches of material are common to all three movements." [Humphrey Clucas]

"Appealing and clever, this piece is sure to be an enjoyable inclusion in many studio recitals by young bassists. Students will gain valuable aural experience by performing a piece that uses modern harmonic language in such a beguiling way." [Double Bassist]

The piano accompaniment is for orchestral tuning only.

About the Composer

Humphrey Clucas was born in 1941 and read English at King's College, Cambridge, where he was also a Choral Scholar. Having taught English for twenty- seven years he subsequently became a Lay Vicar at Westminster Abbey but is now retired.

As a composer he is self-taught, and although he is well-known for a set of Anglican Responses written as an undergraduate, almost all his serious music has been written over the last twenty-five years.

He has a growing reputation as a choral composer and has produced an impressive and steady stream of choral works, both sacred and secular, alongside much instrumental music. He has written works for Cathedrals in Chichester, Guildford, Salisbury and Winchester, as well as for King's College, Cambridge, Southwell Minster and Westminster Abbey.