Research

Canonizing Coleridge-Taylor's Clarinet Quintet

Samuel Coleridge-Taylor’s Clarinet Quintet has been generally well-liked and respected by performers, scholars, and audiences who have heard or played it. However, it is not typically placed alongside Mozart’s or Brahms’s clarinet quintets as part of the standard clarinet repertoire, and it is rarely performed today. In this lecture, I explore possible reasons for the exclusion of this piece from the standard clarinet repertoire and propose reasons for its inclusion. 

The following performance guide can be used by clarinet students, teachers, and performers, all of whom are responsible for the continual preservation and recreation of the standard clarinet repertoire. My guide will provides insight into how to decide on fingerings in particularly challenging passages, develop a comfortable and appropriate embouchure for sections with unusually high and low tessituras or wide melodic ranges, and isolate and practice for fluidity and ease of performance those measures that are typically difficult for clarinetists. 

Finally, please enjoy a performance of this great work featuing myself on clarinet, Alayne Wegner on violin, KayCee Galano on violin, Lila Reeser on viola, and Audrey Hudgens on cello.