Déjà vu

Déjà vu begins with a swinging and possibly annoying clarinet lick. It leads the ensemble through a meandering maze of sections, all in triple time, with varying degrees of waltziness, before ending, unsatisfyingly, with a memory of the opening material. The second movement is all undulating string chorales, with a climactic but disappointingly short appearance of the bass clarinet.  The third movement is a quasi-repetition of the first (hence the work’s title), but with some bits extended, truncated, transposed, etc. When I set out to write this piece, I had high hopes that it would be an epic Serious Clarinet Quintet, a worthy successor to Mozart and Brahms. It didn’t quite turn out that way, but I hope it’s still enjoyable and engaging, on its own humbler terms.