Richibi’s Weblog

   “Sweet, piercing sweet was the music of Pan’s pipe“  

          Walter Crane

               ______

a sonata can be written for any instrument,

some just more prevalent than others, 

here’s one for clarinet, Brahms’ Opus 120, 

no 2 

after the distortions of later composers

you might remember from these pages,

it’s nearly quaint to return to the 

traditional templates for the sonata, 

more than one movement, no more

than two instruments, and attention

to the Classical imperatives of tempo, 

tonality, and repetition

Brahms doesn’t put a foot wrong, all

of the requirements are observed

punctiliously, you could even sing 

or dance to this music, something

you couldn’t later do, unless with

choreography, see, for instance,

Nijinsky

talking about Nijinsky, the clarinetist

here is as feral as the faun Nijinsky 

portrays, via Nureyev in this replicated 

version, in his homage to Debussy’s 

The Afternoon of a Faun, 1912, he 

even seems, the clarinetist, the very 

god Pan, come down from Olympus 

to frequent the backwoods of Ionia, 

to beguile those who would be 

beguiled, with his flute, see above

his accompanist is equally hot

watch

enjoy

R ! chard