A Duet for Two Cats

A Comic Duet for Two Cats was originally a popular concert encore for two singers. The words are not complicated: “meow” is the only one used and it is left to the soloists to express what is going on. Credited to the operatic master Gioachino Rossini 1(792-1868), the Duet is in fact thought to be a short selection of suitable operatic tunes by an English composer Robert Pearsall. There can hardly be anyone who has not heard and/or suffered two cats serenading each other at night.

 

The two brass soloists are scored to use WaWa mutes to create the appropriate feline effects, and since this arrangement was originally done in 1985 for a Brass Band it has amused audiences a great deal. lt is left to the soloists to create the atmosphere with the mutes, even whether or not to be on stage, or even to process around the hall among the audience before includes a quotation from Tristan and Isolde by Richard Wagner. That the two composers loathed each other is my own joke.
 

Howard Snell 2016
 

instrumentation:

Soloists: - Cornet or Trumpet in B flat, Tenor Trombone

Piccolo ~ 1

Flutes ~ 1 & 2

Clarinets - 1, 2 & 3

Bass Clarinet - 1

Bassoons - 1 & 2

E flat Alto Saxophone ~ 1 & 2

B flat Tenor Saxophone - 1

E flat Baritone Saxophone - 1

Trumpets - 1, 2 & 3

Horns - 1, 2 & 3

Tenor Trombone - 1

Bass Trombone - 1

Tubas - 1 & 2