Lachlan Skipworth’s Partita for Solo Clarinet was commissioned by Charles Davidson and Lloyd Van’t Hoff; it was premiered by Lloyd Van’t Hoff at the Melbourne Recital Centre in 2019. Of the work, the composer writes the following:

“About 18 months ago, Lloyd put in a formal request for a solo clarinet work as a follow up to my wind-quintet Echoes and Lines for Arcadia Winds.

I sat on the idea for some time, because as a composer who thinks very harmonically the idea of a solo piece can be quite confronting—the safety net is gone.

However I resolved to use the opportunity as a challenge to re-assess my method of writing single-line melody.

The most obvious source of inspiration, which I’m sure you’ll hear in the first movement, was Bach. His solo works are so compelling in their ability to paint a complete harmonic picture through a single line. (I do, and I’m sure Lloyd does, have a clarinet player’s professional jealousy at the solo Partitas and Suites for violin and cello!

The third movement actually began life as a solo for the shinobue, a Japanese piccolo, for my big work for Sydney Symphony, Riley Lee and Taikoz last year. I’d taken an almost mathematical approach to building 3 or 4 note melodic cells and then trying to assemble them more like a puzzle. The material didn’t make the cut in the orchestral work but was revived here, without the deafening percussive accompaniment.

And the middle slow movement elongates a single 8-bar phrase into a sound world that is more like a traditional shakuhachi piece. I often argue that, of the western woodwind instruments it is actually the clarinet that is closest to the shakuhachi, not the flute as many might think!”