Bit of a fluff piece on the blog today (hua hua). A couple of years ago I was working on Gerard Grisey’s Solo pour Deux for clarinet and trombone with the incomparable Steve Menotti.

At the very beginning of the piece, the clarinetist inserts the bell of her instrument into that of the trombone repeatedly. We were a little concerned about any extraneous noise (or damage to the trombone) caused by the clarinet hitting the trombone, so after considering a few less-fun solutions I created this:

It didn’t have to be yellow I suppose. No, actually it did. But I could make more of them in just about any colour you can think of, so if there are other clarinetists out there who are interested in having one of these, don’t hesitate to get in touch. (Let’s say, €20?)