Magnus Lindberg

Steamboat Bill Junior

Buster Keaton was one of the first stars of the silver screen and appears in the 1928 motion picture, Steamboat Bill Junior, one of the undoubted final highlights of silent film.

Swedish composer Magnus Lindberg was so affected by the stunning film, with its ambitious and iconic stunts, that in 1990 he wrote this terrific piece for Clarinet and Cello called Steamboat Bill Jr.. It is a colourful, four-movement work of spectral music, which hints at minimalism yet attempts to express the action and plot of the film in its eight-minute duration. This is the player's score, edited by Anssi Karttunen and set for Clarinet and Cello.

The first performance took place during a concert by the Toimii ensemble at the Warsaw Autumn festival in September, 1990.