
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.
About the Music
Maria Szymanowska was born in Warsaw, Poland, in December of 1789. She started improvising at the spinet, a popular keyboard instrument of the time, while still a child. Her parents took notice of her talents and arranged lessons for her when she was eight, despite the lack of opportunities for female musicians at that time. She later added composition lessons to her studies. As her talents matured, her parents began to hold musical soirees at their home, featuring their daughter’s performances as the evening’s entertainment. As many of the attendees were members of the aristocracy, artists, and the leading virtuosi of the day, Szymanowska began to establish a reputation as a pianist of rare abilities, especially for one so young. After making her adult debut in Warsaw in 1810, she proceeded to travel to other cities of musical importance, including Paris in the year of her Warsaw debut, and England in 1818. From 1823 to 1826 she toured Germany, France, England, Italy, Belgium and Holland. In 1824, she played in the presence of members of the British royal family. By 1822–3 she toured many cities in Russian cities, including Moscow, Kiev, Riga and, especially, St Petersburg, where she later lived for much of her later life. After returning to Warsaw and giving concerts in Poland, she returned to Russia in 1827 and settled permanently in St Petersburg in 1828. Szymanowska became one of the first professional piano virtuosos of the time and possibly one of the first to perform music from memory, before Franz Lizst and Clara Schumann. Szymanowska made a significant contribution to early 19th-century Polish music, anticipating many of the styles and forms including studies, nocturnes, mazurkas and ballades, all later associated with Chopin. Szymanowska died of cholera during the summer 1831 epidemic in St. Petersburg on July 25 of that year.
In the online newsletter Interlude, Janet Horvath writes of Szymanowska’s Serenade for pianoforte with accompaniment of cello “…is just under seven minutes in length. It begins simply and delicately, in a slow and lilting 6/8 Siciliana rhythm. The lyrical theme has a pastoral quality. As the piece develops the cello ascends into the higher soprano registers and the piano part becomes more florid. Before parting there is a little cadenza in the cello.” It is very apparent that Szymanowskawas a virtuosic pianist in her day, not only from the fact that almost every piece she wrote incorporates piano, but also the incredibly elaborate figures that do not merely accompany the cello as much as they adorn and enhance it.
Piano score: 11 pages; bass clarinet part: 3 pages. Extended-range instrument required.
Listen to the work in its original instrumentation:
PDF 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.
Kim Davenport
President
Duo Alea, the father-daughter duo of Michael and Kimberly Davenport, began performing music for bass clarinet and piano in 1996. 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 Publishing & Recording.
Since our first publication in 1997, the Alea catalog has now grown to include over 300 titles. We pride ourselves on the accuracy and quality of our sheet music, as well as our ability to ship directly to customers around the world.
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 composition award for new works for bass clarinet by black composers.
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