Happy Crazy (sampled) |
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Happy Crazy was written for the fine Professor of Clarinet at the University of Central Florida, Dr. Keith Koons in 1999.
Keith had helped me with "Earth Caoine" and I couldn't think of a better way to thank him than to write a piece in his honor. Keith is an extremely even tempered man, conservative in his dress and manor - and "Happy Crazy" is not the words most people would use to describe him.
The title sprung from the music, an exploration of crazy leaps and dives with thick piano chords in complex shadow strettos and syncopations. In its most difficult original version phrases would leap off any regular sense of any rhythm grid (crazy) yet be notated: using difficult odd meters that really confounded the ensemble cohesion. Somehow, Keith managed the premiere of the work with amazing precision. Unfortunately, the pianist was not prepared for the premiere performance. The work was simply more difficult than the enjoyment that it gave. After the disappointing premiere, I realized that I needed to revise the work to save the best of its ideas from never being heard again.
Much later, I was contacted by Bob Lord at MMC, to consider another project with Richard Stoltzman. "Happy Crazy" was revised once again, simplified. I added a much needed introduction area that clearly spelled out the game at hand, that of the piano imitating the clarinet. But, the work was still too difficult. I did not raise the funds for the project as my house was full of kids and needed repairs.
As I put the website together in 2009, I realized that "Happy Crazy" needed to be represented. I revised the work for the last time ('third time's a charm!"). The opening 14 bars (download the score below) introduce the game - that of the clarinet being imitated by the piano - and 'taunting' the piano to a 'can you do this?' contest. The piano finds its own unique downward 3 note dyad motive as well. The parts and pieces are tossed around until the first mature thematic statement at bar 26. At 38, the first 3 layer thematic stretto is heard. At each quarter note, a new complete thematic statement is begun and finished by another line. Bars 50-63 takes the material nearly past sensibility - the crazy music. To balance the complex textures and disjunct melody of the first section the long notes of the melody in the low resonant register of the clarinet follow. Things get slightly crazy up to 92, where the piano theme enters for some development before returning to more long, low clarinet notes. The quintal harmony if the first part of the B section now fills in as triadic, outlining three simultaneous tonal centers each a whole step apart. I also continue to play with 'delays and echoes' in 105-6. The motion nearly stops by 125 or so, providing a necessary repose. 143 is one of my favorite sections, sounding like water, and building to a new development exploring the major-minor third relationships within stacked quintal harmony until again finding rest at 181. the clarinet recapitulates the introduction leading us into a furious restatement of the themes, leading us to 196. From there until the final statement of the clarinet's three 5ths theme I compress the stretto imitation distance to the eighth note - the piano sounding like a bright shadow of the clarinet.
This new version of the work needs a premiere! Leave a comment or contact me (bottom of the page)
