Published by Angelfire Press (ASCAP) www.andreaclearfield.com
Distributed worldwide by Black Tea Music, sole agent for Angelfire Press www.blackteamusic.com
Andrea Clearfield Home in Me (2019-2022)
I. Body | II. Speech | III. Heart-Mind for treble choir, percussion and piano
Duration: c.24’ minutes
World Premiere (I. Body)
February 16, 2020
Carnegie Hall, New York, NY Consortium of Treble Choirs Dr. Sandra Snow, Director
Commissioned by a consortium of treble choirs
With support from National Concerts (Matthew Workman, director)
World premiere performance presented and sponsored by National Concerts
World Premiere (Complete)
November 6, 2022
First Congregation Church of Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA Vox Femina Iris Levine, Music Director
PARTICIPATING CHOIRS
Radford University Singers, Dr. Meredith Bowen, director mirabai and Mosaic Ensemble, Dr. Sandra Snow, director Texas Tech University Women's Chorale, Dr. Carolyn Cruse, director Rutgers Voorhees Choir, Dr. Brandon Williams, director The Women’s Chorus of Dallas, Melinda Imthurn, director VOX Femina Los Angeles, Dr. Iris S. Levine, director Aurelia, Dr. Stuart Chapman Hill, director Advanced Treble Ensemble, Dr. Nana Wolfe-Hill, director Georgia State University Women's Chorus, Dr. Jennifer Sengin, director Voices Rising - Boston, Leora Zimmer, director
eVoco Voice Collective Treble Ensemble, Dr. David Fryling, director MSU Community Music School Children & Youth Choirs, Alison Geesey-Lagan, director Carling Fitzsimmons, La Caccina
Home in Me was supported in part by a Diverse Voices Collaborative Grant from The American Choral Directors Association (ACDA).
The composer wishes to thank MacDowell (Peterborough, NH), Bloedel Reserve (Bainbridge Island, WA), The Helene Wurlitzer Foundation of New Mexico, Visby International Centre for Composers (Gotland, Sweden), The Copland House (Cortlandt, NY) and the Ragdale Foundation (Lake Forest, IL) for providing invaluable time and space to compose this trilogy. Special thanks to conductor Meredith Bowen for conceiving of and organizing this project.
PROGRAM NOTES
Home in Me was commissioned by a consortium of treble choirs with support from National Concerts. Home in Me (I. Body) was given its World Premiere at Carnegie Hall in NYC on February 16, 2020 by a consortium of treble choirs under the direction of Dr. Sandra Snow. The concert was presented and sponsored by National Concerts, Matthew Workman, director.
Home in Me is inspired by beautiful, poignant poetry by Dr. Sienna Craig that she created specifically for this piece. The three parts explore "what is home" in body/place, speech and heart/mind respectively. In 2008, Sienna and Andrea trekked to a remote region of the Nepalese Himalaya where Andrea researched and helped document Tibetan folk music and Sienna continued her work in Tibetan medicine. The experience led to an interest in migration, diaspora and questions about the nature of home. The first movement, "Body", invites selected choir members to play stones that they gather from places that they call home. The work is a journey, moving through different musical spaces, and is essentially about cultivating home within ourselves. The second movement, "Speech" is about struggling to communicate and understanding and breaking through that struggle. The third movement, "Heart-Mind" addresses our humanness, how both heart and mind must go hand in hand despite the challenges we face. The piece also offers the perspective that we are more than just individual beings, and points to the larger world space contained in us, and our humble place in the universe.
PERFORMANCE NOTES
Home in Me is scored for piano and two percussionists. If rehearsing or performing with piano alone, indicated percussion cues may be also played.
In I. (Body), selected singers play 2 small stones. They should gather the stones from any place that feels like "home" to them. The stones should be small but sturdy (do not crumble), and sound good when struck together. The selected singers should memorize the music or use music stands. The "stones" lines are divided into 2 staves. If possible, these should be assigned so that the sound is antiphonal.
In II. (Speech), enunciate and make the words matter. A selected group of singers may speak measures 70 - 72 in an audible stage whisper.
In III. (Heart/Mind), begin with a restless, urgent quality which leads to a feeling of groundedness and wonder by the end.
Andrea Clearfield
BIOGRAPHY
Creating deep, emotive musical languages that build cultural and artistic bridges, the music of Andrea Clearfield is performed widely in the U.S. and abroad. She has written over 160 works for chorus, orchestra, chamber ensembles, dance, and multimedia collaborations. Recent compositions are inspired by Tibetan music fieldwork that she conducted in the Nepalese Himalaya. Among her works are seventeen cantatas including one for The Philadelphia Orchestra. She has received numerous awards and honors, including a 2021 Pew International Residency Award, a 2016 Pew Fellowship in the Arts, two Independence Foundation Fellowships, and Fellowships at the Bellagio Center, American Academy in Rome, Yaddo, MacDowell and Copland House among others. Her opera on the 11th Century Tibetan saint Milarepa, MILA, Great Sorcerer, to libretto by Jean-Claude van Itallie and Lois Walden was given its first look performance in 2019 at the acclaimed NYC PROTOTYPE Festival.
Dr. Clearfield was Composer-in-Residence with the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia in 2018-19. She served on the composition faculty at The University of the Arts from 1986-2011 and has been invited as Visiting Composer to many colleges and universities including the Curtis Institute of Music, University of Texas at Austin, Yale College - National University of Singapore, University of Arkansas, Michigan State, CalArts, UCLA, University of Chicago, Emory University, Indiana University, William and Mary and St. Petersburg Conservatory in Russia.
Passionate for building community around the arts, she is founder, curator and host of the Philadelphia SALON, featuring contemporary, classical, jazz, electronic, dance and world music since 1986.
Her choral works are published by Boosey & Hawkes (including works in the CME/In High Voice series), Hal Leonard, G. Schirmer, Seeadot and Angelfire Press, distributed worldwide by Black Tea Music. More at www.andreaclearfield.com
PERCUSSION LIST FOR I. BODY
Percussion I
Vibraphone (and bass bow)
*Marimba
2 Sand Blocks
*Tingsha Bells, metal rod (2 Tibetan bells on a cord)
*Chimes (share with II)
Percussion II
Suspended Cymbal
Snare Drum
*Tom-Toms (M, L)
Bass Drum (or Kick Drum)
Claves (H)– (Meinl wood or similar, or Wood Block)
Small Rattle
Triangle
*Chimes (share with I)
Rainstick (optional)
*Substitutions – Xylophone may be substituted for Marimba with some octave transpositions. If Chimes are not available, Vibes or Glock may be substituted. If there are space considerations, Bass Drum (slightly muffled with hard mallets) may be substituted for Tom-Toms, or one Tom may be used. Triangle may be substituted for Tingsha Bells.
Chorus
Selected singers play 2 small stones. See performance notes.
Percussion Key
Percussion
PERCUSSION LIST FOR II. SPEECH
Percussion I
Vibraphone (and bass bow)
*Marimba
Gong (low or medium)
Percussion II
2 Sand Blocks
Suspended Cymbal (and bass bow)
Snare Drum
**Tom-Toms (M, L)
Bass Drum (or Kick Drum)
Policeman's Whistle
*Substitutions – Xylophone may be substituted for Marimba with some octave transpositions.
** Player may add an optional 3trd Tom (S,M, L) for ad lib sections
(low or medium)
Percussion
Percussion I
PERCUSSION LIST FOR III. HEART-MIND
Percussion I
Vibraphone (and bass bow)
*Marimba
Glockenspiel
*Tingsha Bells, metal rod (2 Tibetan bells on a cord)
Percussion II
2 Suspended Cymbals (L, H)
Snare Drum
**Tom-Toms (M, L)
Bass Drum (or Kick Drum)
Small Rattle or Egg Shaker
Guiro Triangle
*Chimes
Tingsha Bells
Percussion II w w B.D.
*Substitutions – Xylophone may be substituted for Marimba with some octave transpositions If Chimes are not available, Vibes or Glock may be substituted. If there are space considerations, Bass Drum (slightly muffled with hard mallets) may be substituted for Tom-Toms, or one Tom may be used. Triangle may be substituted for Ting-sha bells.
** Player may choose to play on 3 Toms (S, M, L)
Chorus
Optional: Selected singers play 2 small stones that sound good when struck together. They should gather these from a place that feels like "home" to them.
HOME IN ME
Poetry by Sienna Craig
I. Body
When our bodies turn this wheel
Crack the vessel, learn what’s real
Leave an echo of the self Moment to moment we touch, we dwell, (but still…)
When we yearn to feel awake Creature of our boundless ache Limb by limb we make the climb Begin, begun this dance of time
Stones in our pockets Wind in our hair
Wondering, wandering, welcomed, where?
When our bodies feel this burn How do we reclaim, return?
Leave an imprint on the skin Moment to moment, we touch, we shed….begin
How do we begin to belong?
A future seeded in the past
This inner landscape, calm at last We live the earth we cultivate How does history resonate?
When our bodies turn this wheel
Crack the vessel, learn what’s real
Leave an echo of the self
Moment to moment, we touch, we feel, we molt, reveal, we shed, begin, again…
How do we begin to belong? How do we begin? Where do we begin? When do we begin?
Feel the pull of home (hands)
Hear the call of home (head)
Hold the still…of home (heart)
II. Speech
What do we carry in our throat?
Where lives rage? Release the note
Crick and crack of brittle bones
Feel the anger, toss the stones
Climb the ladder, raise the roof
Sound the sirens, shout the truth
Strip the bark and burn the tree
Drink the air, roar to be free
Filled to bursting like a dam
Swing wide the doors, hear who I am
When our voices cannot sing
Hold the sound of everything
What do we carry in our throat?
Song, ache, place
What do we carry in our heart?
Wound, care, love
Grief, joy, loss
Breathe, breathe. This too is song.
What do we carry in our throat?
Release, release, release the note
Stone by stone turn over words
Breathe in stories seldom heard
The gloaming is a rush of blood
Across the sky – thrill to the flood
Will, will yourself to speak
Move toward the world you seek
Will, will yourself to sing
Still, if you are suffering
Reckon, reckon, reckoning
Release the sound of everything
III. Heart-Mind
When the ground beneath our feet
Shifts and turns then finds retreat
Mind can be a churning sea
A rocky shore, the death of me
In these moments of despair
Recall your heart, those depths of care
Shed the skin and root the tree
Swing wide the doors of memory
What moves us all?
The hurt we see
The ache we know
The taste of love
And echoes of the heart
And echoes of the heart
Heart and mind hold resonance
Those multitudes we invent
Abide the currents of the self Waves of knowing deeply felt Like time and sky, these feelings rest In the center of the chest
Imagine what mountains see Remember, remember the world in me
Lift the weight of all we are Swing wide horizons near and far We birth, we cry, we find empathy Recall, recall the home in me
Shed the bark and root the tree
Remember, remember the world in me
What holds us all?
The color blue
The cast of moon
The sear of sun
And nothing less than stars
And nothing less than stars
Poetry by Sienna Craig
HOME IN ME I. BODY
(bell-like accent, hum where "m" is indicated)
(If piano only, play quarter/eighth pattern throughout the bar. See m. 12.)
(ossia triangle)
Tingsha Bell gently hit bells together, or strike one bell with a
When
When
When
sospeso, stagger breathing as needed
(quiet whooshing wind sound, changing vowels from "oo" to "ee" to "u")
(quiet whooshing wind sound, changing vowels from "oo" to "ee" to "u")
quietly rub stones together in a circular motion
quietly rub stones together in a circular motion Snare with brushes make circular movements on drum head simulating wind sounds
* If available, a rainstick may be substituted for Snare.. Quietly and slowly turn the rainstick for soft whooshing texture.
Tingsha Bell
Chimes
tenderly, gently
tenderly, gently
tenderly, gently
Chimes
Hands, head, heart,
tap one stone gently on chest (ossia: quietly tap stones together, or tap one stone with a pen) (slightly muffled, with sticks)
Chimes cue (or play on Vibes in octaves)
Bass Drum
Hands,
commissioned by a consortium of treble choirs and National Concerts with assistance from ACDA Diverse Voices Grant for premiere with National Concerts at Carnegie Hall, Dr. Sandra Snow and Dr. Meredith Bowen, conductors
