Humphrey Clucas: Valse Caprice for 2 double basses & piano

About the Composition

Valse-Caprice is a lyrical, engaging and accessible work for the intermediate double bass duo. Composed in 2006 and premiered at Wells Cathedral School, there are few technical challenges for either player alongside a colourful and supportive piano accompaniment which complements the lyrical and flowing solo lines.

This edition includes two versions of the piece:

Intermediate - Bass 1 ventures into thumb position, otherwise it remains in bass clef throughout, and is both player and audience friendly.

Advanced - this makes more use of the solo register for Bass 1, with Bass 2 exploring the rich and sonorous middle register in music which would be suitable for any audience or occasion.

Humphrey Clucas is best known for his choral music, but over the past twenty years he has composed a number of excellent works for double bass. He writes in a tonal and accessible style and he has been a featured composer at Bass-Fest and Wells Cathedral School in recent years.

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.