Red/Blue was composed for Gary Whitman and Janet Pummill in 2008. The piece is cast in four movements, and each movement is titled according to its relation to the colors red and blue. The first movement, ‘Red Groove,’ begins with rhythmic tapping on the piano lid and development of a basic short motive. The middle section is in odd meters; the groove is punctuated by accents on long and short beats, and moves from relative dissonance to folk-like melodic tonality supported by pedal-tone chords. A brief return to the opening material closes ‘Red Groove.’ Movement two, ‘Blue Poem,’ features slowly arpeggiated chords in the piano while the clarinet plays lyrical melodic lines. The progressively climbing clarinet melody represents a passionate but reserved love poem. ‘Red Fugue’ is the short, fiery contrapuntal third movement; it is styled in the manner of the Hindemith Ludus Tonalis fugues for piano. The final movement, ‘Purple Rag,’ is pure ragtime reminiscent of Scott Joplin. Here the red and blue from previous movements mix to create purple: a moderately grooving, tonal piece in ternary form that should relieve the tension presented by prior movements. The clarinetist for whom the piece was written is my colleague at Texas Christian University, where the school color, purple, is a source of great pride: hence, Red/Blue.