Triple Dances (score & parts) - OB/CL/BSN

Triple Dances for oboe, clarinet, and bassoon

by Jon Jeffrey Grier

Oboe doubles English horn. 
This is a brief set of stylized dances that retain just enough character of their Baroque models to be recognizable as such. 
I. Minuet & Duos
In the minuet and trio, a popular stylized dance in triple meter of the 18th centruy, the trio section was typically contrasted by its thinner and simpler texture. Here the trio is thinned from three voices to two, but the canons in the duets make for more complexity rather than less. 
II. Saraband, after Handel
This is a paraphrase of the Sarabande from the "Suite for Keyboard Vol 2 #4 in d minor, HWV 437 by Georg Friedrich Handel. As in Handel's original, this is a set of variations, but in reverse of the more usual order- it becomes quickly more ornate and tonally vague, and then slowly thins out and assumes a more traditional harmonic language. 
III. A Freakin' Gigue
usually reserved for the last dance of a suite, the 18th century gigue featured a fast tempo, triple divisions of the beat, and imitation between the parts. This one is true to that model and exaggerates the rollicking character of the gigue in two and a half minutes of maniacal laughter. 
This work was written in 2007, and revised in 2014 for the PEN Trio, and is part of the PEN Trio Collection. 

A video may be found by clicking HERE.