Sowash: Trio #6, “Goddess of the Moon”, for clarinet, cello and piano

2015 0831

Did you see that full moon last night?  Did it make you go mad?

No doubt you know about the ancient association of moonlight with madness.  “Luna,” the Latin word for ‘moon,’ is the origin of our words lunacy and lunatic.

Nowadays most people don’t regard madness as the result of an over-exposure to moonlight -- a nocturnal, mental equivalent to sunburn.  Moon-burn?  You don’t hear much about it.

And yet … imagine yourself in a deep forest, silvery moonbeams a-gleam in the gloom, the muffled, distant call of an owl, the tiny, inexplicable scampering noises nearby, the weird shapes of things dimly seen.

Shakespeare knew:

"In the night, imagining some fear,
How easy is a bush supposed a bear!”

Not exactly madness, true.  A little comical, yet a little terrifying, too.  We’ve all known that moment.

My Trio #6 for clarinet, cello and piano is subtitled, “Goddess of the Moon.”  Written for “les Gavottes,” a trio based in Cannes, France, this music sounds French, impressionistic.

The movements are organized like a five-act play:

I.  Prologue
II.  Nocturne
III.  Interlude
IV.  Scherzo
V.  Epilogue

The first, third and final movements are short, mysterious and aspire to the gorgeousness of Debussy’s incomparable piano work, “Claire de Lune.”  The lengthy second movement evokes a powerful, dark encounter with Diana, goddess of the moon.

The fourth movement, the one I want to share with you today, is, by contrast, a scherzo, the Italian word for “joke.”  It is a sinister joke, a little terrifying, somewhat in the manner of Dukas’ marvelous orchestral masterwork, “The Sorcerer’s Apprentice."

The work was recorded by the Trio da Camera on my CD “Goddess of the Moon.”  To hear it played — with wonderful verve and wit! -- by clarinetist Joe Rosen and some friends of his (it was recorded in Joe’s living room some years ago and neither of us can recall which of Joe’s many musical friends were playing the cello and the piano on that occasion), click here:
http://www.sowash.com/recordings/mp3/trio_6_scherzo.mp3

To see a PDF of the score, click here:
http://www.sowash.com/recordings/mp3/trio_6_scherzo.pdf