About the Music

We thank Dr. Timothy Bonenfant for providing the following program note for his arrangement of Nadia Boulanger's Three Pieces for bass clarinet and piano:

But her compositional output is more worthy of investigation that she herself would admit. The Trois Pieces for cello and piano from 1914 (also referred to as Trois Improvisations) have their genesis in the Trois Pieces for organ from 1911, when she was 24. The last movement (Improvisation) of the original organ work becomes the opening movement of the cello pieces, while the second movement (Petit canon) maintains its place as the middle movement of both versions. Boulanger jettisons the first movement from the organ work, and composed a new movement to close the cello work.

Piano Score: 17 pages; bass clarinet part: 6 pages. Extended-range instrument required.

Listen to the work in its original instrumentation:

Hard Copy Edition

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About the Arranger

Timothy Bonenfant is a member of Dos Gatos, The Mesquite Trio, The Batik Quartet, and the West Texas Jazz Orchestra. He holds three degrees from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, and a master’s degree from California Institute of the Arts.

Bonenfant has premiered over seventy works, many written especially for him, including Virko Baley's Partita No. 4 for clarinets (bass, A, Eb and Bb contrabass) and piano, and Stephen Emmons’ Seaside and States of Mind. Bonenfant was also one of the performers on the world premiere performance of Arthur Gottschlak’s The Electric Pocket Rocket Boogaloo for bass clarinet ensemble.

With multiple recording credits, Bonenfant’s solo album, Multiple Personae, features music by Virko Baley. Bonenfant uses seven different members of the clarinet family for this collection. The Clarinet, the journal of the International Clarinet Association, said of this album “Throughout this recording, Bonenfant displays his virtuosity performing almost the entire family of clarinets.”

His playing is also featured on Walter Blanton’s The Body of a House, performing Blanton’s Wind Songs One, which was specifically composed for him. Additionally, Blanton featured his bass clarinet playing as a guest artist on the album Voyage from The Past performed by Blanton’s jazz group Dharma. Steve Horowitz included Bonenfant’s performance of his solo work on The Evening News, which Horowitz composed for him and is featured on his album of chamber music San Francisco 1990-1996.

Bonenfant has developed an international reputation as an extremely versatile clarinetist. He has performed at multiple International Clarinet Association ClarinetFests, at the Society for Electro-Acoustic Music at the United States National Conference, at the International Double Reed Society Conference, the American Single Reed Summit, numerous College Music Society conferences, and presented performances and panel sessions at the National Association for College Wind and Percussion Instructors Conference.

He has worked with composers Steve Reich, John Adams, Paul Dresher, Arthur Gottschalk, Libby Larsen, Dana Kaufman, Monica Houghton, Cara Haxo, Dorothy Hindman, Nolan Stoltz, Edwin London, and Ivan Karabitz,

He has also performed with Luciano Pavarotti, Placido Domingo, Andrea Bocelli, Luca Ferrini, Theodore Bikel, Sandy Patti, Toni Tenille, Monica Mancini, The Village People, The Moody Blues, Louie Bellson, Joe Williams, Bobby Shew, Gary Foster, and Carl Fontana.

A former member of the Nevada Symphony Orchestra and the Las Vegas Philharmonic, Bonenfant’s ensemble credits also include the Houston Symphony Orchestra, Abilene Philharmonic, San Angelo Symphony Orchestra, Boise Symphony Orchestra, Nevada Opera Theater, and various groups on the Las Vegas Strip.

In addition to those in the United States, Bonenfant’s has performed internationally in Belgium, Canada, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Portugal, Scotland, Spain, and Sweden. His major teachers include Felix Viscuglia, William Powell, Alberto Asercion, Raphael Sanders, Marina Sturm and Michele Zukovsky.

Dr. Bonenfant is currently Professor of Single Reeds at Angelo State University, where he also has taught Introduction to Music, History of Jazz, History of American Popular Music, Survey of Rock and Roll, Improvisation, and Woodwind Methods.