Dance Music for Mr. Mouse
A Cartoon Ballet for Eb Clarinet and Piano (and optional Animation)
by Daniel Dorff
Chamber Music - Sheet Music

Chamber Music Clarinet, Piano

SKU: PR.114407490

A Cartoon Ballet for Eb Clarinet and Piano (and optional Animation). Composed by Daniel Dorff. Sws. Contemporary. Set of Score and Parts. With Standard notation. Composed Sep-81. 16+8 pages. Duration 9:30. Theodore Presser Company #114-40749. Published by Theodore Presser Company (PR.114407490).

ISBN 9781598064490. UPC: 680160011568. 9x12 inches.

Dorff refers to the squealing glory of the Eb clarinet, in describing his new dance suite for the instrument, the tale of an exuberant mouse dancing himself to an early demise. The piano part is marked funkily percussive and crisp, and later adds a walking bass foundation, among other rock-inspired themes. The performers describe Mr. Mouse with varied dance partners, each with a different sound and rhythm, creating a suite that is as fun to play as it is to hear. More information is available in the composer's program notes, and a full performance is available at YouTube. For advanced performers. Duration: 9'30____________________________________________Dance Music for Mr. Mouse A Cartoon Ballet for E( Clarinet and Piano (and optional Animation) (114-40749)Using rock-infused themes and the squealing glory of the E( clarinet, Daniel Dorff has created a programmatic dance suite which is at once entertaining, and also a striking recital work for the E( Clarinet, setting the tale of an exuberant mouse dancing himself to an early demise.See also the list of MORE MUSIC FOR CLARINET by Daniel Dorff.
Program NotesIn 1981, I had recently joined the Haddonfield Symphony as bass clarinetist, where the E( clarinetist was Sherry Hartman-Apgar who was finishing a performance degree at Temple University. Before long, Sherry invited me to write her a recital piece for E( clarinet and piano, which I was eager and ready to dive into.While daydreaming about how to create a work uniquely in the spirit of the E( clarinet, I noticed a magazine ad for a new line of Sony home stereo amplifiers claiming their control knobs glide so smoothly that a mouse could turn them. The ad had a photo of an adorable mouse standing up using the stereo.At the same time, I’d been thinking that the squeakily melodramatic use of E( clarinet in Till Eulenspiegel was a fun model to parody for the E( clarinet as protagonist.These ideas quickly fused, bearing a programmatic excuse to create a recital piece with strong influence from Led Zeppelin and Chuck Berry, about a mouse who goes to a dance party, dances up a storm with various girl mice, and finally keels over fatally, gently ascending to heaven in the coda. I also hoped this could later be animated in the brilliantly surreal style of Max and Dave Fleischer’s cartoons of the 1930s.* * *The scenario:Introduction (m. 1): Mr. Mouse enters a dance club and eyes a fashionably chic and glamorous girl mouse, full of superficial sizzle.Dance 1 (m. 9): They dance for awhile, and there is much flirting and teasing, which leads only to increased flirting and teasing. Mr. Mouse is easily distracted by...Dance 2 (m. 50): ... a much more sophisticated lady (plucked whiskers) interested only in imported cheeses, oldstyle swing music and dance, and the spotlight. While off to fetch her brie, he is distracted by...Dance 3 (m. 104): ... a sweet young thing, with big pink eyes and graceful ears that tug at his heart. They fall in love instantly, and he croons a romantic ballad.By the end of the song however, she fades from his imagination, revealing that he’s only hallucinated her fantasized existence.Mr. Mouse’s Dance of Death (m.150): A charismatic bad-girl mouse sees him dejected and lonely, picking him out as eager prey. She sweeps him off his feet, exciting him into a choreographic frenzy. They lead each other into wilder and wilder dancing until he keels over fatally, at which point his immortal parts ascend peacefully into the heavens.— Daniel Dorff.