Canto for clarinet was first performed at the Purcell Room, London by Thea King, who had commissioned it. The piece, which is a virtuoso display for unaccompanied clarinet, was written under the influence of my increasing interest in the music of Olivier Messiaen, with whom I made contact that year, and who invited me to join his composition class at the Paris Conservatoire on an informal and occasional basis - since I was living in London at the time. The piece is highly structured, and is probably my only composition which shows the influence of the music of Boulez, which I found fascinating and impressive - but which intimidated me by its intellectual, almost hermetic quality. Messiaen's work seemed then (and still seems today) much warmer and more human.

Nominally, the piece is a palindrome - a form which has always attracted me. The character of the music is hard and aggressive: probably (with the wisdom of hindsight) because I was searching for a safe way between the twin dangers of dogmatic serialism and corny tonal clichés.

Bizarrely, the piece is dedicated to Woody Allen, whom I neither knew personally nor ever met; but I was a fan.

Giles Swayne 2025