Schocker, Gary: Regrets and Resolutions

For Bb Clarinet and Piano

Responding to demand from clarinetists, Schocker created this adaptation of his best-loved work, customizing it for the clarinet’s richness of contrasting registers. Composed as a recital piece for his own performances as a flutist, Gary Schocker’s Regrets and Resolutions has been a standard in that instrument’s repertoire for over 30 years. Inspired by an 80-year-old friend’s birthday, the composer has written: “I wrote the Regrets imagining what it might be like to look back over 80 years. ‘What if I’d made different choices?’ ‘What if ...?’ The Resolutions is a forward-thinking movement, very energetic and positive, except for a brief looking-back, questioning (the 1st movement is recapped and grows), after which the music plunges back into the rhythmic finale.”