The years 2008-2010 were years of losses, including both my parents. At the start of 2011 it seemed time to look forward. Shortly after finishing my "Friedhof" Quintet, I attended a concert given by Calefax, the reed quintet from Amsterdam. No better boost to the spirits could be imagined. Their amazing musicianship and energy inspired me. Within weeks, the first few of my Pleasantries appeared.
The title is an indication of the whimsical nature of these short pieces. I'd thought of writing a "serenade" or a "divertimento" but these terms had historical connotations that weren't appropriate for what I wanted to create. My set of pieces is open-ended, and performers can choose to play any number of them, in any order. My predecessors include Kurtág, Bartók, and Mendelssohn (who never intended all his Songs Without Words to be played at one sitting).
The title of each piece is a phrase one might overhear when people are making "small talk".
You can say that again was the first composed, not long after the death of the eminent American composer Milton Babbitt. It's dedicated to him and his spirit of fun. Babbitt gave humorous titles to many of his pieces. (One of my favorites is Swan Song No. 1.) Were he to hear my piece, I'm sure he would laugh at its absurd parody of his compositional method.
The pieces are scored for varying combinations of oboe (doubling English horn), clarinet, bass clarinet and bassoon.