This earliest extant work, written by a very prolific composer, who in his day was highly respected and who can be seen as a transitional figure between classicism and romanticism, is an aria, 157 measures in length, for alto voice, bass clarinet obbligato and strings. The principal tempo indications are: Andante (♪=96), Vivace (♩=116), a very little slower (♩=100), Maestoso, and 1st movement (♪=96). The tonality which progresses from C major to A minor, C minor, and E-flat major, before returning to C major, accords with the use of the bass clarinet pitched in C, which was built by George Wood, a London instrument maker, and for which this is the only known composition.¹ The range of three octaves and a major second extends from C to d''. French notation is used.

The bass clarinet provides a bel canto obbligato, much in the manner of the obligate for basset horn in Mozart's La Clemenza di Tito and Beethoven's Die Geschöpfe des Prometheus. The aria is operatic in style, in a dignified and exalted mood. The solo line is generally more florid and embellished than that of the voice. On two occasions the bass clarinet and the voice move together in harmony, but generally the bass clarinet provides figured punctuation between the vocal phrases, as well as a lengthy introduction and a coda. The principal lyric tessitura of the bass clarinet is the instrument's upper register. The low register is used in arpeggiated figures leading to or from melodic phrases in the clarion register, or, less frequently, to provide sustained pedal tones. The percentage of the use of successive fifths of instrument's range as follows:

This aria, the first surviving work for the bass clarinet, is technically more demanding than any of the works written for the instrument during the next ninety years. It gives no impression of having been written for an instrument of limited capabilities, but is very comparable to works of the same time for clarinet or basset horn. Scales and arpeggio patterns in sixteenths, sixteenth-sextuplets, and thirty-seconds, as well as turns and trills, appear throughout. A dynamic range of p to f is indicated with occasional sforzato, staccato, and marcato designations.

The work was written for Thomas Lindsay Willman (1784-1840), the foremost clarinetist in England at the time.² It was performed by him on several of his benefit concerts. Althought Mr. Willman's performance and the tonal properties of the new instrument were praised in two reviews in The musical World, George Wood's bass clarinet appears to have attracted no further interests.

¹ Kalina, "The structural development of bass clarinet": 119

² Ward, "Thomas Lindsay Willman,": 37-41