Benny Goodman even to use new fingering techniques. He had his old finger calluses removed and started to learn how to play his clarinet again—almost from scratch." Goodman commissioned compositions for clarinet and chamber ensembles or orchestra that have become standard pieces of classical repertoire. He premiered works by composers, such as "Contrasts" by Béla Bartók; "Clarinet Concerto No. 2, Op. 115" by Malcolm Arnold; "Derivations for Clarinet and Band" by Morton Gould; "Sonata for Clarinet and Piano" by Francis Poulenc, and "Clarinet Concerto" by Aaron Copland. "Prelude, Fugue, and Riffs" by Leonard Bernstein was commissioned for Woody Herman's big band, but
Benny Goodman late 1930s with his big band, his trio and quartet, and the sextet formed in August 1939, the same month Goodman returned to Columbia Records after four years with RCA Victor. At Columbia, John Hammond, his future brother-in-law, produced most of his sessions. By the mid-1940s, however, big bands had lost much of their popularity. In 1941, ASCAP had a licensing war with music publishers. From 1942 to 1944 and again in 1948, the musicians' union went on strike against the major record labels in the United States, and singers acquired the popularity that the big bands had once enjoyed.