ANDREA CLEARFIELD
Standing at the Beam
for SATB choir and string quintet
FULL SCORE
Angelfire Press (ASCAP)
Distributed by Black Tea Music, Sole Agent
Andrea Clearfield
Standing at the Beam (2021) for SATB choir and string quintet
Poetry by Anthony Silvestri. Copyright © 2019 by Anthony Silvestri.
Music Copyright © 2021 by Andrea Clearfield
Published by Angelfire Press (ASCAP) www.andreaclearfield.com
Distributed worldwide by Black Tea Music, sole agent for Angelfire Press www.blackteamusic.com
Andrea Clearfield
Standing at the Beam (2021) for SATB choir and string quintet
Commissioned by the Edward D. Anderson Choral Scholars Fund In honor of the University Chorale, David Rayl, Conductor, Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan
The composer wishes to thank the Helene Wurlitzer Foundation of New Mexico, the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts and the Brush Creek Foundation for providing invaluable time and space to create this work.
World Premiere
April 2, 2022
Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI
MSU University Chorale David Rayl, conductor
Duration: c.11:30 minutes
Program Notes
This work was created to honor the resilience and courage of the survivors of Larry Nassar’s crimes at Michigan State University and to help serve as a source of healing for the MSU campus and all survivors of sexual abuse.
Performance Notes
Accidentals apply only to the octave in which they appear. Courtesy accidentals are included for ease. Silence and stillness in certain sections are important. Performers should refrain from unnecessary movement and sound in those places The text “shu” indicates that the performers should create a gentle exhaling sound, a feeling of release, grounding, dropping into center. Some string parts include knocking quietly on the wood of the instrument. These could also be played as quiet taps. If the bassist doesn't have a C extens ion, low passages may be played up the octave.
The piano reduction of the original string quintet parts in the choral score is intended for rehearsal only.
POET BIO
Poet, author, composer, and speaker Charles Anthony Silvestri has worked with other artists from all over the world to create texts tailor-made for their commissions and specific artistic needs. He enjoys the challenge of solving these creative problems and has provided custom choral texts, opera libretti, program notes and other writing for composers including Eric Whitacre, Ola Gjeilo, Kim Arnesen, and Dan Forrest, and for ensembles ranging from high schools to the Houston Grand Opera, from the King’s Singers to the San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus, from Westminster Choir College to Westminster Abbey. As a clinician, Silvestri speaks to choirs, classes, and concert audiences about his works, the creative process, the marriage of words and music, and about his collaborative relationships with composers. He is the author of three books, including A Silver Thread (GIA 2019), a retrospective of almost 20 years of his lyric poetry. He teaches Ancient and Medieval History at Washburn University and lives in Lawrence, KS.
More at www.charlesanthonysilvestri.com/
COMPOSER BIO
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 175 works for opera, chorus, orchestra, chamber ensemble, dance and multimedia collaborations. Among her works are 17 large-scale cantatas including one for The Philadelphia Orchestra. She was awarded a Pew Center International Residency Award, a Pew Fellowship in the Arts, two Independence Foundation and two Leeway Foundation awards, two Fellowships at the Rockefeller Foundation’s Bellagio Center and fellowships from the American Academy in Rome, Yaddo, MacDowell, Ucross and Copland House among others. Her opera on the venerated Tibetan yogi Milarepa, MILA, Great Sorcerer, with librettists JeanClaude van Itallie and Lois Walden was presented at the 2019 NYC Prototype Festival. Dr. Clearfield served on the Composition Faculty at The University of the Arts from 1986 – 2011. She served on the Board of the Recording Academy/Grammy's Philadelphia Chapter and currently serves on the Executive Board of Wildflower Composers, amplifying voices of young female, transgender, nonbinary, and genderqueer composers. She serves as Composer in Residence at many colleges and universities. Pas sionate about building community around the arts, she is founder, curator and host of the Philadelphia SALON, featuring contemporary, classical, jazz, folk, electronic and world music since 1986.
More at www.andreaclearfield.com
STANDING AT THE BEAM
© 2019 for Andrea Clearfield
Standing at the beam
All alone
Shaken still shaken… broken…
Standing on the edge
Seeking balance
Shifting equilibrium shifting… imbalance…
Rising into my routine
Trying not to fall falling…
Facing all those faces fearing…
Who’ll never know hiding…
That not to fall
Requires all
The grit, the work, the strength
Even the strength of all my scars
To get back up again
Standing at the beam
A shadow at my side shadow…
Weighing me down inside… still...
This shadow is not my story And nothing will take the glory Of what I have accomplished
But I cannot balance alone I must dance with the shadows
Until they fade
Until what’s real shines through…
And I see you I see you…
Standing together together…
We shake this shadow And lift each other up
The light of life is ours today
The world will hear what we must say The light of truth drives shadows away And reveals a bright new dawn
lifting...
We stand at the beam shifting... In strength, together together… Where shadows cannot touch us.