| Abstract "Meditation & Celebration" for clarinet solo by Ronald L. Caravan, which is being performed this weekend for the College Music Society's annual conference, is the product of a true "college-music" dynamic. As the fall 2004 semester drew to a close, Syracuse University graduate clarinet student Jessica Crawford had finalized her last graduate recital program except for an approximate five-minute slot that she hoped to fill with an unaccompanied piece. She had been studying clarinet with Dr. Caravan for six years, through her undergraduate as well as graduate programs, the longest a clarinet student had been in his studio at Syracuse, so he decided to compose a fitting piece for her consideration. In order to present it to her "without prejudice," however, he copied this and four other pieces of similar length and difficulty, with titles and composer names deleted, and gave them to her at her first spring 2005 lesson to sample for a week. At her next lesson, it was indeed her own teacher's piece for which she expressed preference, whereupon Dr. Caravan presented her with a copy of the piece imprinted with the title, composer, and dedication to her. Hence, when the piece was selected for the College Music Society conference, it was actually the second time it was chosen in a blind manner, the first time being by the one for whom it was composed. Miss Crawford presented the premiere performance on her final degree recital February 27, 2005."Meditation & Celebration" is decidedly tonal, the first movement centered on the clarinet's E flat and the second on A. The first movement is based on an eight-tone scale whose tonic is approached from either direction by half step; the second is based principally on two eight-tone scales--a Dorian-Aeolian mixture with both minor and major sixths above tonic, and a Dorian-Mixolydian mixture with both minor and major thirds. The first-movement scale is employed for contrasting material in the second movement. Also, about twenty measures into the second movement, there is a brief quote of a theme from Stravinsky's "L'Histoire du Soldat," owing to the fact that the premiere-performance program included Stravinsky's "Suite" extracted from the ballet for clarinet, violin, and piano. |
