Gimme Some Sugar Inspired by Dock Boggs’ “Sugar Baby” (2017)
Ryan J Williams (ASCAP)
Gimme Some Sugar For Solo Clarinet and Piano Duration: ca. 2’40” Program Notes In 2014, I composed Chicken with No Stones, Baby with No Bones for a Speedwriting Competition while working on my Master’s Degree. This piece, for solo clarinet and piano, had to be composed in a very short window (hence “speedwriting”) - and really became a mental exercise in being able to sit down and focus intensely on a single idea. Having enjoyed the process, I always wanted to go back the project to create a collection of “miniatures” - short character works. Putting myself into the same setting, I embraced a recording of Dock Boggs’, an old-time Appalachian Balladeer, singing his classic tune Sugar Baby. This became the inspiration for this work, which draws on some of the characteristic intervals and tonalities of his melody - but is not intended to be an arrangement of that work. With luck, this will be the second of a collection of several works.
About the Composer
Mr. Ryan Williams first began composing music as a freshman in high school in Mechanicsburg, PA. Following this passion for more than 20 years, Williams has written many works for a variety of forces, both large and small, with a notable focus being on the wind band. To flesh out his craft, Williams attended West Chester University where he earned his Master of Music Theory and Composition in 2014 and his Bachelor of Music in 2003. While studying at West Chester University, he had the opportunity to work with renowned composers and scholars such as Dr. Robert Maggio, Dr. Adam Silverman, Dr. Lex Rozin, Dr. Mark Rimple, Dr. Andrew Yozviak, and Dr. Larry Nelson. Now, Williams receives commissions for all levels of music, ranging from beginning students and middle school band and to professional musicians. His works have been performed across the Eastern United States and have been described as “a cut above the rest” and “sophisticated” by American composer Mark Camphouse. He is a member of the composer’s collective at CWJ Music House, publishing through that group on the JW Pepper website, and has a set of Bassoon Duets titled “Six Greeting Cards” published through TrevCo Music Publishing. Most of his works, however, are self-published and can be previewed at www.RyanJWilliams.net. In addition to composition, Williams is a performer and technician. As a performer, Williams has 5 years’ experience marching with DCA and DCI drum and bugle corps, earning the 1996 DCA World Championship with the Harrisburg Westshoremen and being a 2000 DCI Finalist with the Bluecoats Drum and Bugle Corps. In 2002, he enlisted into the Army Reserve where he served as an instrumentalist, arranger, and composer for 14 years. Since earning a Bachelor of Science in Music Education from York College in 2005, Williams has worked with 32+ competitive and non-competitive high school bands, college bands, and drum corps over the last 17 years across the northeast. Williams has served as the tuba technician and brass instructor for the 2015 World Champion Reading Buccaneers Drum and Bugle Corps and the 2016 Cadets Drum and Bugle Corps from Allentown, PA. In 2017, he joined the brass faculty for the Boston Crusaders Drum and Bugle Corps and became the arranger and composer for the Starriders Drum and Bugle Corps from Bad Münder, Germany. Presently, Williams lives in Columbia, SC and attends the University of South Carolina, pursuing his Doctor of Musical Arts degree in Music Composition.
Clarinet (B Flat)
Gimme Some Sugar
inspired by Dock Boggs’ “Sugar Baby” = 92
Ryan J Williams
Bend down similie 1/4 tone with cresc. sub.
5
9
14
17
flz.
flz.
gliss . sub.
23
11
gliss. 21 = 80
Copyright © 2017 Ryan J Williams and Ryan Williams Music (ASCAP) www.RyanJWilliams.net All rights reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced without express, written consent of the composer.
2
28
Clarinet (B Flat)
accel
46
49
53
= 92 34
sub.
similie
Bend down 1/4 tone with cresc.
40
32
37
Bend with dynamics
44
sub.
flz.
flz.
Gimme Some Sugar
inspired by Dock Boggs’ “Sugar Baby” Ryan J Williams
Clarinet in B♭
Piano
B♭ Cl.
Pno
B♭ Cl.
Pno
4
7
= 92
Bend down 1/4 tone with cresc.
sub.
similie
Copyright © 2017 Ryan J Williams and Ryan Williams Music (ASCAP) www.RyanJWilliams.net All rights reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced without express, written consent of the composer.
2
Gimme Some Sugar
B♭ Cl.
Pno
B♭ Cl.
Pno
B♭ Cl.
Pno
B♭ Cl.
Pno
10
13
16
19
gliss.
gliss.
11
flz.
gliss.
sub.
flz.
21 = 80
Gimme Some Sugar
B♭ Cl.
Pno
B♭ Cl.
Pno
B♭ Cl.
Pno
B♭ Cl.
Pno
23
32
29
26
3
accel
= 92
4
Gimme Some Sugar
B♭ Cl.
Pno
B♭ Cl.
Pno
B♭ Cl.
Pno
B♭ Cl.
Pno
34
34
37
40
43
Bend down 1/4 tone with cresc.
sub.
44
similie
Gimme Some Sugar
46
B♭ Cl.
Pno
B♭ Cl.
Pno
B♭ Cl.
Pno
49
gliss.
gliss.
flz.
Bend with dynamics
52
5
sub.
flz.