Microludes for Flute and Clarinet (2020)
Instrumentation:
Flute, Bb Clarinet
Duration:
5-6 minutes
Score and Parts:
$30 for PDF Download
Program Notes
Microludes is a five-movement work focusing on concise forms and short durations. Drawing inspiration from both Béla Bartók’s 44 Duos for Two Violins and György Kurtág’s Hommage à Mihály András, 12 microludes for string quartet, Jason Gomez began writing these short character pieces as a series of compositional exercises in motivic economy and melodic construction limited to one minute.
Although short-format composition is by no means a modern invention, Gomez approached this medium with a 21st Century relevance. The advent of social media has increasingly reduced the window of time to engage and retain audiences prompting creators of all artforms to adapt to new, hyper-concise, ways of creating and sharing their work. Gomez established the one-minute limits for Microludes so they could fit the video time limits of Instagram and Tik Tok and be shared by performers as complete, engaging, yet quickly digestible musical works.
Each movement features its own unique tonal character and is developed using 1-2 motivic ideas at most. In general, they are light and nimble in spirit, pulling rhythmic and harmonic elements from pop and 20th century classical idioms. The heavily syncopated lines in each voice compliment and interlock with one another tightly, similar to that of jigsaw puzzle pieces.
Microludes was composed January-February of 2020. It was premiered May 1st, 2022 in Baton Rouge, Louisiana by Vermillion Duet.