

This site is home to Alea Publishing & Recording, specializing in music for the bass clarinet.
We offer a growing catalog of creative, artistic transcriptions and new works for bass clarinet solo & ensemble.
Felix Mendelssohn (1809-1847) composed the Song Without Words Op.109 for 'cello and piano in 1845. With this transcription, we make the lovely work available for bass clarinet and piano. With a duration of about 5-6 minutes, this piece would be an excellent choice for contest or audition for the young bass clarinetist.
There are no extremes of range, nor are there any particularly rapid technical passages. The work is in an A-B-A form; the 'A' sections are a lyrical Andante in the major, while the 'B' is marked agitato, with sextuplets in the piano providing a vigorous accompaniment for a passage in the relative minor.
The transcription shifts the key of the original work, placing the bass clarinetist in a comfortable key and range. All other details of Mendelssohn's original score are presented without alteration.
Extended-range instrument NOT required. Piano score: 7 pages, spiral bound; Part: 2 pages, single sheet.
Listen to the work in its original instrumentation:
Hard Copy Edition
Add this item to your cart if you wish to have the hard-copy music shipped to you. We also offer this piece via PDF download: click here to choose that option.
Kim Davenport
President
Alea Publishing & Recording was founded in 1997 by Michael and Kim Davenport, the father-daughter bass clarinet/piano duo. As performers searching for new repertoire and teachers working with students eager to develop as performers, it quickly became clear that there was a need for more repertoire featuring the bass clarinet. Filling this need became the mission of Alea.
The Alea Publishing catalog has now grown to include over 400 titles. We pride ourselves on the accuracy and quality of our sheet music, as well as our ability to reach customers around the world with both hard copy scores and PDF downloads.
We are proud of the diversity of our catalog in terms of the inclusion of works by composers and arrangers from around the world. We are interested in continuing to expand this diversity, representing musical ideas from around the world.
Following Michael's passing in 2019, Kim has taken over solo management of Alea Publishing. In 2020, Alea established the Dolphy Prize, an annual award for Black musicians who are engaged in composing and performing works featuring the bass clarinet.
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