Cha b’an grad

William Sweeney

6 Bb Clarinets and a bass clarinet

If you would like to hear an excerpt from the sax version arranged by Richard Ingham click on the quaver sign.  It may take a few seconds to load your windows media player

This piece for seven clarinets was arranged by William Sweeney from his opera An Turus as a tribute to Alan Hacker and was first played by a group of his friends at Alan’s 60^th Birthday Party. The playing time is only three minutes but, once heard, the haunting  melody, in the Scots Gaelic style, will remain in the listener’s mind for much longer.  This work is an essential addition to any Clarinet Ensemble’s repertoire.

William Sweeney is Glaswegian by birth, and the two inspirations of either traditional Gaelic music or Jazz or both are seldom far away in any of his works which encompass Instrumental, Chamber, Orchestral, Choral and Opera. Among his most recent works are a Clarinet Quintet, “Sweeney Astray” for Concert Wind Band,  the film score for An Iobart (The Sacrifice) for which he won a Scottish BAFTA award. and Airc an dualchais (Inheritance Ark) commissioned for the opening of the new Museum of Scotland. The opera An Turus was premiered in 1998 by the Paragon Ensemble.

A version for saxes has also been prepared by Richard Ingham and it is this that you are hearing if you clicked the quaver button.