{"product_id":"dorff-dance-music-mr-mouse-e-flat-clarinet-piano-presser","title":"Dorff, Daniel_Dance Music for Mr. Mouse","description":"\u003cp\u003eFrom the composer:\u003cbr\u003e\"In 1981, I had recently joined the Haddonfield Symphony as bass clarinetist, where the Eb clarinetist was Sherry Hartman-Apgar who was finishing a performance degree at Temple University. Before long, Sherry invited me to write her a recital piece for Eb clarinet with piano, which I was eager and ready to dive into.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWhile daydreaming about how to create a work uniquely in the spirit of the Eb clarinet, I happened to see a magazine ad for a new line of Sony home stereo amplifiers claiming their control knobs glide so smoothly that a mouse could turn them. The ad had a photo of an adorable mouse standing up using the stereo.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAt the same time, I'd been thinking that the squeaky and melodramatic use of Eb clarinet in \u003cem\u003eTill Eulenspiegel \u003c\/em\u003ewas also a fun model to parody for the Eb clarinet as protagonist.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThese ideas quickly fused, bearing a programmatic excuse to write a recital piece with strong influence from Led Zeppelin and Chuck Berry, about a mouse who goes to a dance party, dances up a storm with various girl mice, until he finally keels over fatally, gently ascending to heaven in the coda. I also hoped this could later be animated in the brilliantly surreal style of Max and Dave Fleischer's cartoons of the 1930s.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eThe scenario:\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cem\u003eIntroduction (m. 1):\u003c\/em\u003e Mr. Mouse enters a dance club and eyes a fashionably chic and glamorous girl mouse, full of superficial sizzle.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eDance 1 (m. 9): \u003c\/em\u003eThey dance for awhile, and there is much flirting and teasing, which leads only to increased flirting and teasing. Mr. Mouse is easily distracted by...\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eDance 2 (m. 50):\u003c\/em\u003e ... a much more sophisticated lady (plucked whiskers) interested only in imported cheeses, oldstyle swing music and dance, and the spotlight. While off to fetch her brie, he is distracted by...\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eDance 3 (m. 104):\u003c\/em\u003e ... a sweet young thing, with big pink eyes and graceful ears that tug at his heart. They fall in love instantly, and he croons a romantic ballad. By the end of the song however, she fades from his imagination, revealing that he's only hallucinated her fantasized existence.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eMr. Mouse's Dance of Death (m. 150):\u003c\/em\u003e A very charismatic bad-girl mouse sees him dejected and lonely, picking him out as eager prey. She sweeps him off his feet, exciting him into a choreographic frenzy. They lead each other into wilder and wilder dancing until he keels over fatally, at which point his immortal parts ascend peacefully into the mousie heavens.\"\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Theodore Presser Company","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":48790835593466,"sku":"11440749","price":18.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/2337\/0861\/files\/img774copy_7ed2f1ef-941a-40de-863d-58d3c7a84380.jpg?v=1777488381","url":"https:\/\/www.clarinetallmusic.com\/products\/dorff-dance-music-mr-mouse-e-flat-clarinet-piano-presser","provider":"CAMco Music, LLC","version":"1.0","type":"link"}