Views from an English Rowboat for Clarinet (in B flat), Piano and String Quartet - Sheet Music (PDF Download) - By Joanna Bates
"Views from an English Rowboat" is an intermediate ability level piece for B flat clarinet, piano and string quartet, composed by Joanna Bates, and typeset by Pitch Perfect. The full score is eight pages long, and parts are included. Run time 7:57.
©2020 Joanna Bates. All rights reserved.
Programme Notes:
"In the Spring of 2020, with a world in global lockdown and finding myself with the unexpected blessing of more time at home, I became aware of the Lawson May/Solent 2020 Composer Competition. “Views From An English Rowboat” was inspired by and expressly written for the competition. It is simply a remembrance of simple freedoms that have been sadly missing in these strange times. The piece hopes to achieve exactly what it says on the tin in that, it portrays a series of seaside vignettes as viewed from a rowing boat in summer; gently floating in a coastal bay with a beach, a green headland - and people - enjoying their outdoor lives in a social setting.
I chose to write for all six instruments as this allowed for a greater palette of characterisation to draw the different ‘views’ that I was attempting to paint. This was necessary given that there are quite a few images that I strived to evoke - and it had to be done in less than ten minutes of music.
The broad scene is comprised of the following ‘views’ which are fleetingly focused upon, only to be superseded by a turn of the head or the sudden laughter of a child:
• a hot, baking sun, eyes almost closed to the sky
• the peace and tranquility of a distant horizon
• occasional threats of a dark cloud, passing over - (it is England!)
• children & a large lady chasing a hat in the wind, almost catching it... then it’s off again
• looking over the edge of the boat into mysterious waters
• seeing fish darting and chasing in clouds of disturbed sand
• children on the headland, a kite wheeling and dancing down from the bluest of skies
• a sense of freedom, unburdened - and the feeling that all is right with the world
Joanna Bates - May 2020
