Chocolates-BSN/PN

Chocolates for bassoon and piano

Torch Songs for viola and piano (bassoon version)

by James Grant

Slow jazz... What musical language could celebrate more appropriately the lyrical, sensuous, expressive character of the bassoon? The three Chocolates, in this version for bassoon and piano, are torch songs in the tradition of the passionate, tuneful ballads of the American 40s and 50s. The first two Chocolates,Valentine and Bittersweet, offer soulful narratives that speak to devotion, poignancy, romance, uncertainty, longing. The third Chocolate, Triple Mocha Indulgence, is slightly less soul-searching, more ebullient, and progressively becomes more animated (a sugar high, perhaps?) right up to its raucous close. Chocolates was commissioned and premiered in 1998 by violist Michelle LaCourse, to whom this music is dedicated.

- James Grant