Sonata for Bass Clarinet and Piano was commissioned by virtuoso former Houston Symphony clarinetist Richard Nunemaker, and takes full advantage of his prodigious technique and the instrument's extraordinary range. Although the sonata is traditional in its structure - with three movements whose tempi are ordered as fast, slow, fast - it is highly original in its musical content.
The first movement draws upon two rather disparate sources for its material - Dizzy Gillespie's bebop standard "Salt Peanut", and Frank Zappa's art-rock masterpiece "Eric Dolphy Memorial Barbeque", hence the title, Salt Peanut Memorial Barbeque. The second movement uses a technique much, much older, that of the isorhythmic motet. The piano accompaniment has a talea of five rhythmic events serving a color of four pitch events. The clarinet cantillates a monody against this that is comprised primarily of the pitches not displayed in the accompaniment; hence the title Motet - Ancient Incantations. The third movement is a bebob and boogie-woogie tour-de-force for the two instruments, at once paying homage to Eric Dolphy and to one of the great songs of his era, "Green Dolphin Street", and hence the title, Green Dolphy Street Boogie.
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