This collection features four chorales in each of the major and minor keys in addition to four longer chorales at the end of the collection, drawn from the music of Johann Sebastian Bach and transcribed for a quartet of three B-flat clarinets and one bass clarinet. A low C bass is desirable for some chorales, but by no means essential: necessary octave displacements are indicated in parentheses. The final four chorales are especially suitable for concert performance due to their longer duration. In selecting chorales for inclusion in this collection, I sought to include as much variety in meter, form and texture as possible.

Numerous auxiliary parts are available: e-flat clarinet, alto clarinet, basset horn, contralto clarinet, and contrabass clarinet. These parts can be used to create a more diverse clarinet quartet and address issues unique to these auxiliary clarinets in an ensemble setting, or expand these clarinet quartet transcriptions into versions for full clarinet choir.

“David Cook’s 100 Chorales from the Music of J.S. Bach is a wonderful addition to the clarinet ensemble repertoire … this collection can fit any size clarinet ensemble, allow for growth, and facilitate improving technical and musical elements. This collection is a must-have for any clarinet studio, high school, college, or community group.”

David Deiter, Clarinetist with the Salina Symphony

“This compilation is an excellent collection that would be useful for any high school or college music program. They are beneficial to developing those skills that will result in a well-rounded musician.”

Lori Ardovino, Professor of Clarinet and Saxophone and Chair of Music at the University of Montevallo

Johann Sebastian Bach’s Organ Trio in G Minor, BWV 584 can be traced back to the aria “Ich will an den Himmel denken” from the cantata Wo gehest du hin?, BWV 166. The original aria calls for solo tenor, oboe, violin and continuo. Bach’s authorship of the arrangement known as BWV 584 is disputed; whoever arranged BWV 584 retained only the instrumental parts from the aria (with minimal alterations) and omitted the solo tenor line.

This transcription can be played by either a trio of two clarinets and bass clarinet, or by a quartet of three clarinets and bass clarinet. The trio version is a faithful transcription of BWV 584, while the quartet version restores the solo tenor line in the third clarinet part. If utilizing the third clarinet part to become a quartet, the musicians playing the first and second clarinet parts should utilize the ossia measures as indicated to reflect the minute differences between the aria and the organ trio.

“… this is a beautiful set, skillfully arranged by Dr. Cook. I would program this work on a recital as I’m sure many other professional clarinetists would.”

Lori Ardovino, Professor of Clarinet and Saxophone and Chair of Music at the University of Montevallo

“… the 9-minute collection is charming and would make a lovely addition to a clarinetist’s library, particularly for a performer searching for a relatively short, harmonically lush, 19th-century recital work.”

Lacey Golaszewski, Adjunct Lecturer at SUNY Fredonia

“Cook does a good job of making the work sound like it was authentically written for the clarinet … the clarinet world will soon recognize this as a welcome addition to the repertoire by a notable composer of color.”

Katrina Phillips, Assistant Professor of Clarinet at Alabama State University

“The untapped beauty and finesse of Cook’s thoughtful arrangement of this Coleridge-Taylor sonata is a welcome and important addition to the clarinet repertoire that will fit a variety of programming needs while being artistically fulfilling for the performers and enjoyable for the audience.”

Danielle Woolery, Associate Professor of Clarinet and Coordinator of Instrumental Studies at Texas Woman’s University

Paul Hindemith composed his Kanonische Sonatine (Sonatine in Canon Style), op. 31 no. 3 for two flutes in 1923. Like much of his music, this piece features Hindemith’s characteristic non-diatonic tonality: the use of all twelve pitches of the chromatic scale freely while retaining centric pitches as points of emphasis and resoluation. Hindemith dedicated the original version of this piece to flutist Paul Hagemann (1882–1967), flutist of the Copenhagen Wind Quintet who had previously studied with Paul Taffanel and Adolphe Hennebains.

As the title implies, the three movements rely heavily on canonic imitation between the two clarinets. In the first movement, Hindemith has the second voice enter at the interval of a major third, with the second and third movements featuring the interval of a major second and perfect fifth, respectively. In this transcription, I have retained the tonal centers from Hindemith’s original, making it possible to perform the Kanonische Sonatine as a flute-clarinet duo by combining this publication with the original version for flute and adjusting appropriately for balance between the different instruments.

Discovered in the Leipzig municipal libraries in September 2024, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart likely composed his Serenade in C Major, called “Ganz Kleine Nachtmusik” for string trio in the mid- to late 1760s. Researchers believe the music discovered in Leipzig is not an original manuscript, but instead a copy produced around 1780. The title, prescribed by the municipal library and translating roughly as “Very Little Night Music, is an obvious reference to Mozart’s K. 525 “Eine Kleine Nachtmusik.”

Mozart casts the first movement using pre-Classical sonata principles in which only the secondary theme returns in the movement’s home key of C major. He begins the following Allegro with nearly the same chord he concludes the Marche with, seemingly linking the two movements together beyond their shared early sonata principles. The third movement is a simple minuet and trio (with the trio set in the subdominant), while the Polonese is similarly concise in its simple ternary form. The Adagio is the only movement which Mozart begins in a key other than C major, with hints of what Mozart would later write in the Gran Partita. A second minuet and trio follows (with its homophonic beginning calling to mind the second movement of the Serenade No. 11 in E-flat Major) before giving way to a charmingly brief Allegro that concludes the piece.

This transcription can be performed by a trio of two clarinets and bass clarinet, two clarinets and bassoon (the most common modern instrumentation to perform Mozart’s divertimenti originally scored for three basset horns), or three clarinets. All of these parts are provided. The score reflects the version for two clarinets and bass clarinet.

Clarinetists will undoubtedly be familiar with Igor Stravinsky’s Three Pieces for Clarinet Solo, written in 1918 for philanthropist and amateur clarinetist Werner Reinhart. Well, this is not that piece! Igor Stravinsky composed his Three Pieces for String Quartet in 1914, before revising them in 1918 and publishing them in 1922. The three movements were untitled in their original publication, but Stravinsky later arranged these movements for full orchestra and gave them titles as part of his Quatre Études in 1928. This transcription makes the work available for clarinet quartet, specifically e-flat clarinet, 2 b-flat clarinets, and bass clarinet.

In the first movement, Stravinsky offers what might be considered a precursor to minimalism with the insistent repetition of four rustic ideas: a folklike melody, a four-note interjection, a pedal point and a simple bass line. The second movement was inspired by a meeting between Stravinsky and the music hall comedian Little Tich, evident in the angular and starkly contrasting gestures. Stravinsky was especially fond of the third movement, calling the final twenty measures “some of the best music of that time.”