Instrumentation: 

Solo fl.Eh./2.2.2.2./4.3.3.1./timp.1perc.hp./strings

(harp and 3rd trumpet are optional)

Other versions: Cinema for Orchestra and Romance for Clarinet, String Orchestra, Piano and/or Harp

Date: 2011

Duration:  9:20

Notes:

Romance for Clarinet, String Orchestra, Piano and Harp (9:10)

The Romance for Clarinet, String Orchestra, Piano and Harp was rewritten in the fall of 2004 for clarinetist Jerome Summers based on a previously composed orchestral piece called Cinema, which had been written the previous winter.  Cinema was commissioned for a special 40th anniversary concert to celebrate the foundation of the Hamilton Philharmonic Youth Orchestra and Dr. Glenn Mallory’s directorship. I had asked Glenn to describe his dream composition for this project.  After some thought, Glenn said he would love a piece featuring a beautiful romantic melody.

Today, one of the fields of musical composition that most highly values sweeping romantic melody is music for film.  Having worked in Los Angeles for the motion picture and television industry during the 1980’s, I decided to draw on this experience to compose Cinema.  Combining both American and European influences, Cinema and therefore Romance was written in two sections.  In this version called Romance, the opening section has a “Magical” atmosphere created by the strings, piano and harp against a more improvisatory and melodic clarinet part ending with a solo clarinet cadenza.  In the second section, the main romantic melody is first heard in the clarinet.  This section also includes a darker “film noir” melody featuring a solo violin and cello with the clarinet.  Romance ends as it began, quietly and calmly.

Romance was first performed by clarinetist Jerome Summers and the Toronto Sinfonietta conducted by Ronald Royer at the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto on January 23, 2005.

Commissioning and First Performance

Cinema for Orchestra was commissioned by the Hamilton Philharmonic Youth Orchestra, as part of an Ontario Trillium Grant project connected to the 40th anniversary of the orchestra.

First performance: May 22, 2004, Great Hall, Hamilton Place, Hamilton, Hamilton Philharmonic Youth Orchestra, Dr. Glenn A. Mallory conductor.