"Spirited"

In our everyday psychology and colloquial language, "the choleric" and "the melancholic" are definitely present, even if the doctrine of temperaments no longer plays a role in modern scientific personality psychology. As role models and inspiration for musical composition, however, the archetypal basic types of being are perfectly suitable. The composer Günter Habicht will probably have realized this in his Sonatina, composed in 1969 and published by Breitkopf in 2021. Temperaments have thought.
Günter Habicht (1916-2010) lived in the GDR from 1949 and worked as a dance musician, primary school teacher and, from 1955 to 1981, as a teacher of music theory and clarinet at the Leipzig-Stadt music school. He composed music for folk instruments, teaching literature and works for wind orchestra, chamber and orchestral music.

The Sonatina for clarinet and piano comprises three movements. The first movement, an Allegro giocoso (The Sanguine), is characterized by a rhythmically concise and a contrasting, rather lyrical theme that expresses lightness and joie de vivre. The second movement, which musically depicts the melancholic and is entitled Larghetto con dolore, consists of an ostinato piano accompaniment and rhythmically repeating short phrases in the clarinet, reminiscent of circling thoughts. The final movement, a lively Rondino burlesco (The Choleric), shows an agitated, wild character with clownish features: a not unsympathetic choleric. Harmonically, the sonatina moves in a moderately free tonality in the spirit of Hindemith without clearly recognizable fundamental tones or tonal centers.

The clarinet part and the piano accompaniment both have a similar level of difficulty, making the work suitable for advanced music students and amateur musicians.

Günter Habicht: Sonatina "Temperaments" for clarinet and piano, EB 7515, € 21.90, Breitkopf & Härtel, Wiesbaden