Sean William Calhoun | Composer and pianist

The Clarinet Quartet begins with a “Customary Sonata Form Movement,” featuring an introduction (slow), a first theme (quick), and a second theme (jovial), a closing motive (staccato), a development (with fugato), a recapitulation (with more staccato), and a coda (slow). The second movement, “No you may not have a fugue,” repeatedly attempts to assemble a fugal exposition, but is repeatedly thwarted, including once by an unrelated fugue’s subject. “Passacaglia — it keeps happening” is titled in reference to the nature of a passacaglia, the worst webcomic, as well as, slight less directly, the best webcomic. The last movement is titled “So many notes...” for reasons that should be obvious quickly.