A Commonplace Book

Date of Composition: 2015

Duration: 14'

Category: Small Ensembles (3-5 players)

Instrumentation: Clarinet, Trumpet, Trombone, Baritione

The keeping of a commonplace book, a collection of sayings, poems, articles, virtually any written matter, flourished in the 19th C. It was not necessary that there be any thematic link to the entries save the value to the keeper of the book. A Commonplace Book follows this same concept in its makeup. The six pieces are highly contrastive by design.

1. Accusì va er monno- a setting of a scabrous sonnet (That's the way the world goes) by the 19th C. Roman dialect poet G.G. Belli.
2. Pifferari-an evocation of the Abruzzi bagpipers that fill the streets of Rome at Christmas.
3. Confession-a setting of a passage from the childhood memoirs of St. Augustine
4. Temptation-based on a Shaker exorcism song
5. Chorale-a setting of two verses of Martin Luther's hymn "Von himmel hoch"
6. Nils Tallefjoren-based on a Norwegian folk song

Written for Loadbang.