Written for three clarinets and one bass clarinet, the Clarinet Quartet was premiered in full on September 12, 1965 by the Interlochen Music Camp Quartet in Detroit, Michigan. Similar to the Woodwind Quintet, which had been premiered earlier the same year, Weinzweig combines his serialist compositional technique with jazz elements. Weinzweig explains: “The four movements are based on a single 12-tone row with its inversion and retrograde. The style is in the ‘jazz-swing’ manner.”
While blend is essential in any performance ensemble, Weinzweig also avoids mundane homogeneity by creating individual profiles based on rhythm, intervals, articulation, and dynamics.
Written by Alexa Woloshyn
Clarinet Quartet (1965)
1. Moderate Tempo
2. Moderately Fast
3. Moderately Slow
4. Fast and rhythmically precise
Clarinet (3), Bass Clarinet
Duration: 8 minutes
First Performance: 5 March 1965, Toronto; Forest Hill Collegiate Quartet (one movement), Full Quartet premiered: 12 September 1965, Detroit MI; Interlochen Music Camp Quartet