August Louis Baeyens received his musical training at the Royal Flemish Music Conservatory in Antwerp, studying solfège, viola, and harmony. As a composer, Baeyens developed chiefly through the study of composers such as Debussy, Wagner and Strauss; this interest gave him the reputation of a revolutionary within the confines of the very traditionalist conservatory. This Rhapsodie for Clarinet and Piano was composed in 1965, only a year before his death. Composed in the concours style, it opens with a lyrical Moderato, leading to a faster and more technical Allegro section.