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Programme Note

This sonata for clarinet, cello and piano was commissioned for the 1969 Macclesfield Arts Festival for the Peyer Trio, to whom it is dedicated.

The work is in various linked sections which together make up a continuous movement, and the thematic material is derived principally from the opening clarinet solo. To some extent, the treatment of this theme, and the tunes arising from it, depends on the different characters of the three instruments, and thus their special characteristics are emphasised by the differing approaches to the thematic material. The title 'Sonata' is used rather than 'Trio' because it was felt that this approach, intent on separating the instruments somewhat rather than trying to combine them as far as possible, would be more in keeping with a less traditional, though equally abstract, title: the intention ahs been to keep each instrument's individuality while letting them all work with roughly the same tunes.

© John McCabe