Sqwonkzoforus Rex was composed for my bass clarinet duo, Sqwonk, and the piano duo ZOFO. It came about when Sqwonk and ZOFO decided to split a concert program at Old First Church in San Francisco, and I couldn’t resist the opportunity to combine the two groups together in a new composition. As I thought about the piece, an image entered my mind of a fantastical piano-two-bass-clarinet beast. I pictured the two bass clarinets coming out of the back of the piano like two heads, or like antennae, or like a scorpion tail. And I pictured this beast lumbering through prehistoric swamps, heaving its body this way and that, snorting and bellowing. And I pictured it suddenly transported to our own time, and trying to fit in, trying and failing to “civilize” itself (with the assistance of a certain famous romantic Russian piano concerto, quoted in the piece). All of these images coalesced into an abstract sonic narrative that became Sqwonkzoforus Rex.

SHEET MUSIC FOR THIS PIECE CAN BE PURCHASED AS PART OF THE BASS CLARINET NERD SPECIAL OR THE SUPER DUPER MEGA ULTRA INCREDIBLE ALL CLARINET MUSIC SPECIAL