Premiered on October 18, 2015, by Jill Dreeben, flute, Todd Brunel, clarinet, and Elizabeth Skavish, piano, for Contemporary With Classic: Music with Flute Clarinet and Piano,
Brandeis University Concert Series, Slosberg Recital Hall, Brandeis Univerisity, Waltham, Massachusetts.
Commissioned by Jill Dreeben for the concert at Brandeis University, this trio casts (or recasts) some sketchbook materials, shedding new light on sometimes “pending” ideas and giving then the particular definition that the flute/clarinet/piano instrumentation suggests.
- Prelude is a version of a two part invention entitled Deux Mains Qui Penser; as the French title suggests, the piece is somewhat pensive (and a little capricious).
- Opa’s Twofer is a pair of similarly enrgetic (but also reflective) ideas smashed together to congratulate and celecrate pianist/composer Thomas Stumpf on his recent grandfatherhood.
- Trio Study in Familiar Style is a four part chorale; parts are underlined/doubled in ways that the instruments accentuate idiomatically.
The three pieces were presented together as a set due to their proximity in my sketchbook as well as because of their contrasting qualities.
Boston Arts Diary writes:
John McDonald’s Three Sketchbook Items immediately calls forth the image of “Cubist Copland,” an abstract array of sounds that still maintains, at its core, a kind of pastoral unity. The wandering sonority of the Prelude is short, quaint and angular, giving way, in Opa’s Twofer to tremolos echoing three ways, with an emerging lyrical piano line that seeks to sew the fluttering pieces into a quilt of sounds.
Three Sketchbook Items is dedicated to Jill, Todd, and Liz with gratitude.