As with many other composers of his generation, two influences are of remarkable importance to Verbey: Firstly, the influence of American music from the early 1960s, the so-called “minimal music”, and secondly, the influence of postmodernism through the reference to older classical art music and also to other music genres such as jazz, pop and world music. Especially because these genres are so ubiquitous. Issues such as ‘modernity’ or ‘social relevance’ do play a role, but they are less in the foreground than roughly twenty years ago.

The Clarinet Concerto is a three-movement work in which the movements relate in time approximately as 9: 6: 3. In the first movement, the introduction of two constructive ideas forms the starting point: an angular, wooden melody in the horns against a low, free melody in the bassoon and contrabassoon. After this the solo clarinet repeats these two thoughts in its own way, after which a contrasting part follows. The first part concludes with a sort of summary of what happened.

The second part refers to the Japanese Gagaku “Eetraku”. This is ceremonial music for use in temples and at traditional weddings. The solo clarinet takes over the role of the hichiriki: the solo ritual instrument within the Japanese orchestra. The strings take the role of the sho (mouth organ) and equivalents of koto (zither) and biwa (lute) are found in the harp and pizzicato of the cello group. Finally, in the percussion we find the equivalents of the shoko (gong), taiko (big drum) and kakko (small drum). The third movement is a fleeting, short movement that serves to conclude the entire work.

The confrontation between soloist and orchestra (in particular with the horn group, harp and percussion) is of course central to this work. Both worlds occasionally meet when the solo clarinet merges with the clarinets in the orchestra. As in other works, balance and elegance are more important than emotional discharges and bursts of sound. The main musical objective is to hold the attention of the experienced listener.