The 'Accolades' – caprices for solo clarinet – are a series of 8 concert pieces which explore many techniques of modern Clarinet playing written within traditional musical notation. Although they are primarily conceived as recital or concert works, they are also extremely useful as 'study' pieces and are programmed as such in the course-work repertoire of several Spanish music conservatoires.

The composer, also a professional cellist, has dedicated the entire work to the highly regarded Spanish clarinet teacher and specialist chamber-music artist Joan Borràs, whose truly professional musical attitudes and enormous enthusiasm for his instrument are the main reasons for the existence of these musical creations.

These individual pieces can be performed freely in any number and in any order (such as Accolades – Caprice No.2, Accolades – Caprice No.7, and Accolades – Caprice No.4, for example), but in general terms it is useful to know that these pieces gradually progress in an ascending order of difficulty: numbers 1 – 4 would be suitable for most intermediate players, and numbers 5 – 8 considered more appropriate for advanced clarinettists. Not only this, the beauty of the conception of this work is that Johnstone gives simultaneously a double performance possibility: it is that the pieces can equally well be endorsed as being programmed as a Sonatina (Nos. 1 – 4) or as a Sonata (Nos. 5 – 8) – in this case the programme should logically be set out as described below:

Sonatina for Clarinet Solo
I Moderato quasi andantino
II Scherzo
III Reflection (lento e rubato)
IV Moto Perpetuo
(duration: approx. 7 mins.)

Sonata for Clarinet Solo
I Allegro
II Scherzo
III Quasi cadenza (adagio e doppio movimiento)
IV Rondo (con fuoco e pesante)
(duration: approx. 14 mins.)

It can be seen that, presented in this way, both works fall in a fairly traditional four-movement layout. However, whichever way the individual pieces are chosen to be presented, they should make for quite exciting additions for the soloist repertoire, an interesting and refreshing moment during a clarinet and piano recital, and excellent educational material for the intermediate and advanced clarinet class.