The movements are called after varsiou animals you would see on a safari: Zebra, Crocodile, Ostrich, Monkeys, Giraffe and Cheetah.

Review:

I really liked these pieces, six short programmatic duets which are fun to play and easily accessible to both players and audience.

I particularly like the way Paul Harris uses articulation – it’s always sensible but adds an enormous amount of colour and interest to his pieces.

From a teaching point of view he never fails to give us something really constructive to work on with our pupils, and this volume is no different.

The pieces are all in easy keys but there’s technical material in each one to get your teeth into.

‘Zebra’ has liberal use of side key F sharp.

‘Crocodile’ has some interesting use of dotted figures and accents. Ostrich’ utilises
different time signatures.

‘Monkeys’ is a compound rhythm piece and is really good fun to play and definitely cheeky!

‘Giraffe’ utilises slurring across the registers in large leaps, and finally ‘Cheetah’ bounds along in a 6/8 arpeggiated finale.

The cover is lovely, an attractive watercolour which is very child friendly.

There are directions throughout the book and a section at the back to compose your own animal duet which is also aimed at children.

I’m not sure your average junior school clarinet pupil would manage these duets, though they are definitely worth using with more able younger pupils and intermediate players as they are sight- reading standard Grade 5.

An excellent addition to the duet repertoire.

EDITOR’S CHOICE

Viv Halton in Clarinet & Saxophone Magazine