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 Etudes
The seven Concert Etudes for solo bass clarinet (2014) belong to a cycle of Etudes for various instruments, titled "Play of the Thought," which provide performers with challenges suitable to prepare them for the repertoire of the 21st century.
Dr. Tsanoff was motivated to include works for bass clarinet in his cycle to refute the notion that the bass clarinetist should not be expected to handle technically demanding works. The composer also believes that music of the 21st century will increasingly utilize irregular meters, therefore creating the necessity that performers are able to handle such irregular and changing meters to perfection. He has heard many capable and expressive soloists who "become helpless as a child" when confronted with such material, and so this features prominently in these Etudes. Additionally, the final etude in the volume includes alternating passages written in B-flat and A, encouraging practice of transposition.
Extended-range instrument required. 63 pages, spiral bound.
About the Composer
Dr. Hristo Tsanoff, DM, is a Bulgarian composer. Born in 1947 in Sofia, he studied the violin, piano, and composition in his youth, in addition to studying medicine and spending much of his life working as a military doctor. His diverse and prolific compositional output includes operas, sacred music, symphonies, violin, 'cello, and piano concertos, as well as the extensive "Play of the Thought" cycle of Concert Etudes for various instruments and ensembles.
For more information about the composer and his works, visit his website!
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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