Humphrey Clucas: Two Whimsies for double bass & piano

About the Composition

Two Whimsies was composed in 2023 and is aimed at the intermediate bassist. They are charming and engaging miniatures, allowing the double bass to take centre stage, with simple but supportive piano accompaniments which add colour and contrast. There are few technical challenges, but wonderful opportunities to explore the sonorous and cantabile qualities of the double bass in its middle register.

“These two miniatures can be played separately, one without the other, but I like to think of them as a linked pair, with scarcely a break between them. Except when playing a bass line, the bassist must aim for lyricism.” [Humphrey Clucas]

Three Impressions was commissioned by David Heyes for 40 @ 40, a project to commission forty new double bass pieces to celebrate Recital Music’s 40th birthday in 2026.

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.