The composer writes: 'David Heyes, in a casual moment, offered me a set of nine notes, or rather three groups of three, and asked me to make a piece out of them. I think there was a technical reason for this. I imagined one rather poor, sad clown doing a grotesque imitation of an elegant Viennese waltz.'

Clown Dance can be performed entirely in 4th position, or a combination of 1st and 4th positions, and combines a wonderful mix of musical skills with effective technical ones. The music is stylish and elegant offering a number of challenges for the young bassist.

Clown Dance was premiered by Matt Green (double bass) and Gemma Beeson (piano) at Wells Cathedral School (Somerset, UK) on Sunday 2 October 2011.

Humphrey Clucas was born in 1941 and read English at King's College, Cambridge, where he was also a Choral Scholar. Having taught English for twenty-seven years he subsequently became a Lay Vicar at Westminster Abbey but is now retired.

As a composer he is self taught, and although he is well-known for a set of Anglican Responses written as an undergraduate, almost all his serious music has been written over the last twenty-five years. He has a growing reputation as a choral composer and has produced an impressive and steady stream of choral works, both sacred and secular, alongside much instrumental music. He has written works for Cathedrals in Chichester, Guildford, Salisbury and Winchester, as well as for King's College, Cambridge, Southwell Minster and Westminster Abbey.