Noteworthy Sheet Music, LLC

Noteworthy Sheet Music’s transcription of the viola part for Brahms’ Two Songs for Alto, Viola, and Piano, Op. 91 for clarinet quickly became one of our most popular editions, so we wanted to please our customers with another voice, clarinet, and piano option.  We decided to create a clarinet version of the poems famously set to music by Charles Martin Loeffler (1861-1935).  Quatre Poèmes pour Voix, Alto et Piano, Op. 5 was premiered by the Boston Symphony Orchestra with Loeffler himself on viola.  In these four songs, Loeffler set to music one poem by Charles Baudelaire (“La cloche fêlée”) and three poems by Paul Verlaine (“Dansons la Gigue!”, “Le son du cor s’afflige vers les bois”, and “Sérénade”).  Each of these songs has a unique character but Loeffler’s love of color variations and dense harmonies can be heard throughout the set.