About the Work

Program note courtesy of the composer:

Trio Kinetica, for violin doubling viola, B flat soprano, B flat bass and E flat soprano clarinets, and piano, was composed in 2011 for Trio Clavino. The title alludes to the fact that in this case my musical ideas were inspired by dance steps. Each of the movements blends different dance traditions in a fanciful manner. "Bossalypso" is an energetic hybrid dance with cross accents, syncopation and a rhythmic groove combining elements of Calypso and Bossa Nova without being faithful to either genre. This opening movement highlights the piano along with the soprano clarinet and viola. "Owl's Tango" requires the clarinetist to switch to bass clarinet and the violist to switch to violin. This tango is based on a series of jazzed-up variations on a bass ostinato. The last movement, "Oh! Domenico," requires a switch to piccolo clarinet. This lively finale is quite brisk, and it features some freely adapted allusions to Baroque Italian composer Domenico Scarlatti's harpsichord music, which was sometimes inspired by the Spanish Jota.

Score: 24 pages, spiral bound; parts: 12 pages each, booklet format. Extended-range instrument required for bass clarinet part.

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About the Composer

Born in 1951, composer John Carbon's eclectic musical background accounts for the wide variety of styles that he now embraces in his work. During his high school years he played and wrote for a rock band, but he also performed standard classical repertoire as a pianist and clarinetist, composing orchestral works that were influenced by Stravinsky and Prokofiev. His father played jazz saxophone, and some of Carbon's works, notably his Clarinet Concerto (1993), written for Richard Stoltzman and the Warsaw Philharmonic, incorporate bluesy harmonies and rhythms.

Recently, an ever-more lyrical and tonal tendency can be heard in John Carbon's music, along with an increased interest in contrapuntal textures. His music is rhythmically propulsive, sometimes as a result of the introduction of vernacular styles such as ragtime and tango. Most of his later work is aligned with his own unique version of "the new tonality," but at the same time his music falls firmly in the post-modern camp, meaning that he fuses different styles from past eras with the present to create his own highly accessible and distinctive voice.

Much of John Carbon's orchestral music, including the concerti for clarinet, piano, trumpet and double bass, has been recorded by the Warsaw Philharmonic, Slovak Radio Orchestra, Czech Philharmonic, New York Chamber Symphony, Concordia and the Seattle Symphony. Conductors who have performed and recorded his music include Gerard Schwarz, George Manahan, and Maron Alsop. Performances have included premieres in Boston's Symphony Hall, New York's Avery Fisher, Alice Tully, Merkin and Carnegie Halls, Smetena Hall in Prague, the Mozarteum in Salzburg, and the Wuhan Conservatory in China.

Recordings of John Carbon's music can be found on the Naxos, Delos, MMC, CGS, Moonbridge, Emeritus, VMM and Zimbel labels. His primary publisher is JCcollections, and scores can be purchased from Sheetmusicplus, J. W. Pepper, Wehr's Music House, Alea Publishing and Lulu. He is presently the Richard S. and Ann B. Barshinger Professor of Music at Franklin & Marshall College in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.