Description
Duo Impressionniste
Composed by Thierry Escaich
for Flute and Bb Clarinet
Published by Billaudot
Duration: 1 minute
Includes 1 playing score
This short work for flute and B-flat clarinet, commissioned for a March 2018 festival from French composer and organist Thierry Escaich from the Conservatoire à rayonnement regional de Caen, was premiered by students from the
school. The one-minute piece is so short that it is surprising it is published as a stand-alone, but it is certainly of pedagogical
value due to the seamless dovetailing of the instruments. Running 16ths alternate, overlapping, from flute to clarinet.
The publisher rates the piece of intermediate difficulty (grade 4–5). It could be played by a high school or college student
duo, the only thing unusual for a younger student being the few 7/16 bars that occasionally interrupt the 2/4 meter.
Since one player always plays continuous 16th notes, the 7/16 bars are eminently teachable; one player must simply subdivide to fit in with the running sixteenths (1–2, 1–2, 1–2–3.) The tempo is not fast (quarter note=80), so lightning technique is not required, but rhythmic stability and timbre matching are. This solid little piece could be given to students for ensemble development or programmed on a concert with longer works. It does not sound delicately impressionistic in imitation of
Debussy or Ravel, but it has its own charm. — Review by Joanna Cowan White, Flutist Quarterly, Fall 2019
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