Four Humors is
a virtuoso piece for clarinet and piano that was commissioned
by the Music Teachers' National
Association for premiere at the annual conference of
the Massachusetts Chapter in October, 1992. The
piece was completed with the assistance of a residency
at the Palenville Interarts Colony in the mountains of
New York state.
The music has several
opportunities for solo clarinet improvisation and various
rhythmic and
harmonic echoes of blues, particularly in the third movement. The
second movement is a moto
perpetuo for the piano. The last movement is
expansive and joyous. The four movements are titled
Phlegmatic, Choleric, Melancholy, and Sanguine, titles derived
from the four humors described in Greek physiology.
The music was written
specifically for premiere by classical and jazz clarinetist
Chester Brezniak
(pictured above) accompanied by the composer. The two
musicians also performed the piece at the New School of Music
in Cambridge, Massachusetts, on WGBH-FM in Boston,
and at the MacDowell Colony in New Hampshire. Four
Humors has also been performed by other musicians on the Marblehead Festival, by the Great Noise Ensemble in Washington, DC, and at the Crane School of Music in NY. In
2002 Chester Brezniak and Jeffrey Chappell performed the
piece at the New School of Music and recorded it for a Centaur
compact disc.