Steep Steps for bass clarinet (2001) | Compositions

Dedication: For Virgil Blackwell
Buy Score: Hendon Music (Boosey & Hawkes)
Manuscripts: Paul Sacher Stiftung

Premiere: Oct 17, 2001/ Virgil Blackwell, bass clarinet/ Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, New York, NY

News

Collage Commemorates Carter

March 16, 2016
Hommage à Elliott Carter - Ensemble Intercontemporain

January 15, 2018

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Steep Steps clip

Steep Steps was written for the greatly admired clarinetist and friend, Virgil Blackwell, during the summer of 2001. Its title comes from the fact that, unlike the other woodwind instruments, the clarinet overblows at the twelfth, a large interval that forms the basis of much of this composition.

– Elliott Carter

Recordings (3)

Elliott Carter: The Complete String Quartets; 100th Anniversary Release
Naxos 8.503225 (2010)
Pacifica Quartet: Simin Ganatra, violin I; Sibbi Bernhardsson, violin II; Masumi Per Rostad, viola; Brandon Vamos, cello
Elliott Carter: 100th Anniversary Release
Naxos 8.559614 (2008)
New Music Concerts Ensemble, Robert Aitken, conductor | Max Christie, clarinet | David Hetherington, cello | Virgil Blackwell, bass clarinet | Fujiko Imajishi, violin | David Swan, piano
The Music of Elliott Carter, Volume Five - Nine Compositions (1994-2002)
Bridge Records 9128 (2002)
Virgil Blackwell, bass clarinet | Charles Rosen, piano | Maureen Gallagher, viola | Speculum Musicae: Stephen Taylor, oboe; Curtis Macomber, violin; Eric Bartlett, cello (+5)