What Instrument is That?
  • Context
    • Bass Clarinet
    • Contrabass Clarinet
  • Composers
    • Dietrich Van Akelyen
    • Peter Meechan
    • Tom Davoren
    • Christian Paarup
    • Bart Picqueur
    • Paul Richards
  • Compositions
    • The Autumn Years of Mr. & Mrs. Tattletale
    • Three Minitures
    • Tango
    • Waiting Game
    • Here We Rest
  • Contributors
    • Sponsors
    • Composers
    • Acknowledgments
  • Contact
  • Context
    • Bass Clarinet
    • Contrabass Clarinet
  • Composers
    • Dietrich Van Akelyen
    • Peter Meechan
    • Tom Davoren
    • Christian Paarup
    • Bart Picqueur
    • Paul Richards
  • Compositions
    • The Autumn Years of Mr. & Mrs. Tattletale
    • Three Minitures
    • Tango
    • Waiting Game
    • Here We Rest
  • Contributors
    • Sponsors
    • Composers
    • Acknowledgments
  • Contact
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Program Note: 

Waiting... Waitting…. Waitting

For an interesting part, for a duet, for something new. Waiting Game combines the marimba and contrabass clarinet. This is interesting as it pays homage to one of the first bass clarinet ensembles that strayed away from bass clarinet and piano the Duo Contemporain, which was for Bass Clarinet and Marimba. Waiting game gives way to the interweaving of two wonderful sounds that until now have not been heard together.

At the start of waiting game we hear the opening in the marimba, then enter a contra drone. It takes almost 30 measures of music before he two instruments play together. Once we get the two sounds we hear a lovely triplet motif that supports the melody in the contabass.

As we move through the work we come to a section mark “On Edge”. Here the style and mood drastically change along with the technical demands for the contra. The player must be able to properly display different articulations and stylistic changes.  The meter changes and rhythms in the marimba give way to an energy that drives the work forward. There is a moment of relief from being “On Edge” when the contrabass clarinet plays lyrical, but it is short lived with the appearance of an accelerando into the final section marked “Rampant”. In this final rampant section the back and forth between the marimba and contrabass clarinet returns, but in the last moments of the work the two instruments come together in a unified flurry and then it stops.

Note by Frankie Dascola

Images by

Liam Cotter Photography &
Solas Studios
Ira Berger 
​Photography

Icons by

Ed Reynolds

Resources & Citations

Belgian Musical Instrument Museum

Horniman Museum: London

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Work Cited
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