Official site of composer Andrea Clearfield. Biography, list of works with audio, score samples, reviews and program notes, photographs, upcoming performances.
Dream Variations premiere, Disney Hall. Photo by Lee Salem
Scored for: SATB, flute, viola, harp, organ Text: Langston Hughes Language: English Duration: 22 min. Premiere: February 22, 2009, The Los Angeles Master Chorale, The Debussy Trio, Christoph Bull, organ, Grant Gershon, music director, Walt Disney Concert Hall, Los Angeles, CA Commissioned by: The Debussy Trio Published by: Self-published, Angelfire Press
Contact Andrea Clearfield for score and parts:
“You must program Dream Variations with your choirs!” Grant Gershon, Music Director, Los Angeles Master Chorale
REVIEW: The Los Angeles Times, February 23, 2009:
“…the most striking elements were provided by the fluid, glistening interplay of the commissioning Debussy Trio (harp, viola, flute) and organist Christoph Bull.”
– Richard S. Ginell
PROGRAM NOTES
Dream Variations premiere: Andrea with Grant Gershon and the Debussy Trio. Photo by Lee Salem.
Dream Variations was commissioned by The Debussy Trio. The work is set to 3 poems by Langston Hughes that speak of past, present and future dreaming beginning with images of sleep and sunset and ending with the dawning of a new day. The music is inspired by Hughes’ evocative opposing images and the innate musicality of his verse. Instrumental solos for the organ and the trio separate the three choral movements.
TEXT
Debussy Trio performing Dream Variations with the Los Angeles Master Chorale, Grant Gerhson, artistic director
The Negro Speaks of Rivers
I’ve known rivers ancient as the world
and older than the flow of human blood in human veins.
My soul has grown deep like the rivers.
I bathed in the Euphrates when dawns were young.
I built my hut near the Congo and it lulled me to sleep.
I looked upon the Nile and built the pyramids above it.
I heard the singing of the Mississippi when Abe Lincoln went down to New Orleans,
and I’ve seen its muddy bosom turn all golden in the sunset.
I’ve known rivers; ancient, dusky rivers.
My soul has grown deep like the rivers.
Sun Song
Sun and softness,
Sun and the beaten hardness of the earth,
And the song of all the sunstars.
Sunstars gathered together, dark ones of Africa.
I bring you my songs to sing on the Georgia roads.
Daybreak in Alabama
When I get to be a composer,
I’m gonna write me some music
about daybreak in Alabama;
and I’m gonna put the purtiest songs in it,
rising up from the ground like a swamp mist
and falling out of heaven like soft dew.
I’m gonna put some tall, tall trees in it,
and the scent of pine needles,
and the smell of red clay after rain,
and long red necks and poppy colored faces
and big brown arms and the field daisy eyes of
black and white people.
And I’m gonna put white hands and black hands
and brown and yellow hands and red clay earth
hands in it,
touching everybody with kind fingers,
and touching each other, natural as dew,
in that dawn of music;
when I get to be a composer
and write about daybreak in Alabama.
Dream Variations
Dream Variations premiere, Disney Hall. Photo by Lee Salem
Scored for: SATB, flute, viola, harp, organ
Text: Langston Hughes
Language: English
Duration: 22 min.
Premiere: February 22, 2009, The Los Angeles Master Chorale, The Debussy Trio, Christoph Bull, organ, Grant Gershon, music director, Walt Disney Concert Hall, Los Angeles, CA
Commissioned by: The Debussy Trio
Published by: Self-published, Angelfire Press
Contact Andrea Clearfield for score and parts:
See preview score pages: DREAM VARIATIONS CHORAL SCORE EXCERPT (PDF)
DREAM VARIATIONS FULL SCORE EXCERPT (PDF)
QUOTE
“You must program Dream Variations with your choirs!” Grant Gershon, Music Director, Los Angeles Master Chorale
REVIEW: The Los Angeles Times, February 23, 2009:
“…the most striking elements were provided by the fluid, glistening interplay of the commissioning Debussy Trio (harp, viola, flute) and organist Christoph Bull.”
– Richard S. Ginell
PROGRAM NOTES
Dream Variations premiere: Andrea with Grant Gershon and the Debussy Trio. Photo by Lee Salem.
Dream Variations was commissioned by The Debussy Trio. The work is set to 3 poems by Langston Hughes that speak of past, present and future dreaming beginning with images of sleep and sunset and ending with the dawning of a new day. The music is inspired by Hughes’ evocative opposing images and the innate musicality of his verse. Instrumental solos for the organ and the trio separate the three choral movements.
TEXT
Debussy Trio performing Dream Variations with the Los Angeles Master Chorale, Grant Gerhson, artistic director
Dream Variations (poems by Langston Hughes)
The poems by Langston Hughes are used with kind permission of
The Estate of Langston Hughes.
Copyright ©1994 by The Estate of Langston Hughes
The Negro Speaks of Rivers
I’ve known rivers ancient as the world
and older than the flow of human blood in human veins.
My soul has grown deep like the rivers.
I bathed in the Euphrates when dawns were young.
I built my hut near the Congo and it lulled me to sleep.
I looked upon the Nile and built the pyramids above it.
I heard the singing of the Mississippi when Abe Lincoln went down to New Orleans,
and I’ve seen its muddy bosom turn all golden in the sunset.
I’ve known rivers; ancient, dusky rivers.
My soul has grown deep like the rivers.
Sun Song
Sun and softness,
Sun and the beaten hardness of the earth,
And the song of all the sunstars.
Sunstars gathered together, dark ones of Africa.
I bring you my songs to sing on the Georgia roads.
Daybreak in Alabama
When I get to be a composer,
I’m gonna write me some music
about daybreak in Alabama;
and I’m gonna put the purtiest songs in it,
rising up from the ground like a swamp mist
and falling out of heaven like soft dew.
I’m gonna put some tall, tall trees in it,
and the scent of pine needles,
and the smell of red clay after rain,
and long red necks and poppy colored faces
and big brown arms and the field daisy eyes of
black and white people.
And I’m gonna put white hands and black hands
and brown and yellow hands and red clay earth
hands in it,
touching everybody with kind fingers,
and touching each other, natural as dew,
in that dawn of music;
when I get to be a composer
and write about daybreak in Alabama.