I have not regarded the clarinet with any particular fondness. I can appreciate its textural contribution to orchestral music but as a solo instrument I find its sound somewhat strange. It reminds me of lederhosen, trilbies with feathers and large tankards of beer for some reason... Even in Tchaikovsky's fifth symphony — my absolute favourite non-Beethoven symphony — the clarinets in the opening bars make me think of elephants playing their trunks.
Anyway, I decided to write a piece for the Clarinet in an attempt to gain a better appreciation of it. What we have here was intended to be the first movement in a sonata but, by the time I'd finished it, I decided it was perfectly OK as a stand-alone piece of music — but what to call it?
Well, a bagatelle is (to quote Wikipedia) "a short piece of music, typically for the piano, and usually of a light, mellow character."
I have taken "typically" to mean "usually but not necessarily" and the work you have before you now is definitely of a light(-hearted) character. (If you read the Wikipedia entry, you will perhaps think I am stretching this definition a little.)
The initial, extensive theme runs along mirrored in and supported by the piano. The clarinet then begins a series of perigrinations and modulations which the piano tolerantly supports. This section ends with the clarinet restating the opening of the original theme but having wandered a major third higher, whereupon it is sharply rebuked by the piano. The clarinet makes amends for its error and launches, at the correct pitch, into the coda, leaving the hearer with, I hope, a smile 😃!
