Official site of composer Andrea Clearfield. Biography, list of works with audio, score samples, reviews and program notes, photographs, upcoming performances.
Scored for: SATB and SSAA choruses, chamber orchestra, electronics (arrangement for reduced instrumentation and individual treble chorus movements available) Text: Dr. Sienna Craig and traditional texts from the region of Lo Monthang in Upper Mustang, Nepal, initial translations by Karma Wangyal Gurung and Katey Blumenthal; poetic translations by Sienna Craig; transliterations by Katey Blumenthal and Andrea Clearfield Language: English,Logay (Mustang dialect of Tibetan) Description: This cantata is inspired by the composers treks to the restricted and remote Himalayan region of Lo Monthang, Nepal to study and document indigenous Tibetan folk and sacred music. The work incorporates 5 songs from the gar-glu (court) and tro-glu (common) traditions. Duration: 32 min. Premiere:World premiere, 4/29/12 with the Mendelssohn Club, Pennsylvania Girlchoir and Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia, conducted by Alan Harler at Holy Trinity Church, Rittenhouse Square, Philadelphia. NYC and NJ premieres on 5/19 and 5/20, 2012 by Schola Cantorum on Hudsun, Deborah King, artistic director, on May 19, 20th, 2012. Performance at University of Texas at Austin with UT Concert Chorale, the Women of the UT Chamber Singers and the UT New Music Ensemble, Dan Welcher, Conductor, March 27, 2013. Commissioned by: The Mendelssohn Club and the Pennsylvania Girlchoir Published by: Self-published, Angelfire Press
Contact Andrea Clearfield for score and parts:
WATCH
LISTEN: Excerpts from the premiere. Mendelssohn Club, Pennsylvania Girlchoir, Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia, Alan Harler, conductor
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
LISTEN: Entire work, performed at UT Austin with the UT Concert Chorale, the Women of the UT Chamber Singers and the UT New Music Ensemble, Dan Welcher, Conductor
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
Tse Go La Premiere. Photo by Anthony Creamer
PRESS
“A beautifully constructed and deeply satisfying work of art..a fantastic amalgam of cross-cultural influences, achieved with remarkable lucidity…rich… powerful..the complexity and allure of Tse Go La cries out for more performances.
—Peter Burwasser, Broad Street Review, 5/5/2012
“The warm, direct music Philadelphians have come to expect from Clearfield has become all the more distilled as it is increasingly influenced by travels to the loftiest regions of Nepal, where she collected folk music and Buddhist songs in 2008 and 2010. Tse Go La is the most elaborate work to emerge so far from these experiences.” Philadelphia Inquirer Preview Story: Andrea Clearfield’s Songs from High Mountains by David Patrick Stearns, 4/28/2012
“It’s been a long time since I’ve been as moved by a new work as I was last night. Congratulations on a magnificent piece!”
- Peter Bay, Music Director, Austin Symphony Orchestra
“I don’t know of a contemporary work of this genre that comes close to the emotional and almost extraterrestrial highs that TSE GO LA delivers. Andrea has a wonderful sense of large-scale timing and drama in all her works, but this piece spans the broadest arch of any of her pieces that I’ve heard. From the “elemental” electronic opening, with its rocks and fire and water and wind, to the “Birth” sequence (with meltingly lovely poetry by Sienna Craig), all the way to the chanting of the Heart Sutra in the “Death” music at the close, this is a half-hour of musical magic-making of the highest order. When the last singing bowl ceased ringing, there was a full thirty seconds of silence before anyone dared to applaud—but then the response was overwhelming. This music will resonate within everyone who hears it for a very long time.”
- Dan Welcher, Composer-Conductor, Director, University of Texas New Music Ensemble
“Andrea Clearfield graciously hosted an extensive introduction to her “Tse Go La” cantata to the The Philadelphia Fans of Classical Music. We not only learned about the extensive detail and research that went into the work but also how so many lives have already been affected in the process. What started as a well defined goal rippled through the Tibetan community, and now the world, as that drop broke the surface of an extremely isolated community in danger of losing some of its cultural history. I can’t think of a more compelling story for why the arts are vitally important.”
– Sharon Torello, Founder, LocalArtsLive
Listen to the concert webstream from the premiere performance with the Mendelssohn Club, Pennsylvania Girlchoir and Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia
FIELD RECORDINGS
Katey Blumenthal and Andrea Clearfield’s field recordings from Lo Monthang, Nepal are now part of the World Oral Literature database of Endangered Languages and Cultures at the University of Cambridge
TEXT
Tse Go La (At the threshold of this life) – a cantata on rites of passage
I. KYE (Birth) Bare threshold of this life
Pass over, pass through
Our body, this vessel,
begins and ends anew.
In these mountains of our soul
we are willed into being, elemental:
Earth, water, fire, wind, space.
(Sa, lung, chu, mé, nam kha)
Gifted presence, this human form
Made of mother’s blood, father’s bone,
And that hidden inner spring.
This laboring night
Breathe into the hearth-bound
Burnishing of time.
Outside, an owl calls.
Come morning, the whole village will know:
A woman’s spent silence
A child’s crystal cry.
Bare threshold of this life
Pass over, pass through – Sienna Craig
II. Shar Ki Ri (Mountain to the East) Sung in the Mustang dialect of Tibetan
Do not look toward the mountain toward the east
Look, instead, to the mountain in the west
Look up to the heights, and down to the depths of the mountain
Toward the places of wealth, the pure treasure of the dharma
Do not look toward the mountain toward the east
Look, instead, to the mountain in the west
For this is the root place, the copper-colored paradise of Guru Rinpoche,
The place of pure treasure and excellent perception,
A place of future accomplishment for sentient beings
Do not look toward the hills of India,
Where beautiful cultures like peacocks abound
Do not disturb them
May we be prosperous! – traditional
III. Tse Go La (At the threshold of this life) Sweet threshold of this life, Pass over, pass through
Sung in the Mustang dialect of Tibetan
At the threshold of this life
A vast lake appeared before me
The lake unfurled like a flower I desired [a young woman]
It was as if the true Buddha appeared threefold, for me to behold
The right side [the father’s side] inspired purity
As there is with an ordained monk, whose knowledge is as vast as the sky
The left side [the mother’s side] is a place of dakini [female deity]
In the tradition of the great consorts
From the high land of the rock strewn hills
I look down upon a beautiful valley
This high mountain pasture nurtures luscious grass,
Just as this is so, it is my karma to wed this beautiful bride -traditional
IV. Kusum (When Queen Kusum Goes as a Bride to Ladakh) Sung in the Mustang dialect of Tibetan
The Monthang palace rooftop
Is where the girl’s house gods reside.
But from the girl’s own homeland Monthang,
Would they dare to send her away?
To the eastern region of Ladakh
Do you dare send Kusum away?
The four-cornered square room,
Is where the girl’s parents reign.
But from the girl’s own homeland Monthang,
Would they dare to send her away?
To the eastern region of Ladakh
Do you dare send Kusum away?
Past the curtains of the prayer room,
Is where the nobility sit in rows.
But from the girl’s own homeland Monthang,
Would they dare to send her away?
To the eastern region of Ladakh
Do you dare send Kusum away?
The courtyard before the palace
Is where a pair of drummers drum,
But from the girl’s own homeland Monthang,
Would they dare to send her away?
To the eastern region of Ladakh
Do you dare send Kusum away?
Inside the main gate of Monthang,
Is where the girl’s subjects reside,
But from the girl’s own homeland Monthang,
Would they dare to send her away?
To the eastern region of Ladakh
Do you dare send Kusum away?
The area aroung the stupa,
Is where the girl’s friends congregate,
But from the girl’s own homeland Monthang,
Would they dare to send her away?
To the eastern region of Ladakh
Do you dare send Kusum away?
Like the fast patter of youthful footsteps,
In only a window of time could you see her leave
But from the girl’s own homeland Monthang,
Would they dare to send her away?
To the eastern region of Ladakh
Do you dare send Kusum away?
Even the officers of near-by Tingri,
Bow their hats in respect to the Queen.
But from the girl’s own homeland Monthang,
Would they dare to send her away?
To the eastern region of Ladakh
Do you dare send Kusum away? -traditional V. Re Chung Tso (The performers) Sung in the Mustang dialect of Tibetan
The playing party, all the musicians and dancers,
The playing party has joined the stage
Come! Turn out to watch the performers,
Performing in honor of Tara (Dolma)
[The Mother who takes us across the ocean of samsara]
Do not be distracted!
Come! Turn out to watch the performers
This performance for Tara, for wealth, prosperity, wellbeing
Come! Turn out to watch the performers,
In this place where the Lhamo [Tibetan opera] is performed
Be generous, as the performers move amongst you
[a request for donations from the audience]
You might say, “I am old,” as you gather for the performance
But turning out to watch the performance –
Oh, these times make you feel young!
The king of the golden hill, he also dances,
Performing in honor of Tara,
Here, on the spacious plain
The king and commoners alike,
They dance on the golden hill,
Requesting good fortune and blessings,
In honor of Tara,
Dance, dance, dance around. -traditional
VI. SHI (Death)
Worn threshold of this life
Pass over, pass through
In this land of many stones
A fossil unearthed by river’s course
Mirrors our own tumblings,
In the waning hours of our time
You whose name I do not know –
Old woman: faded apron, weathered hands
Old man: not seeing but to dream –
I meet you here, grateful
For this most true of destinations.
Start for this place, O gnarled soul,
Released from certainty
Along the journey of becoming.
What is nascent here,
In this transcendence, this in between,
Is nothing short of miracle:
Dried seed, green shoot, pressing
Toward the surface
Craving rain and stars and sun.
Bare threshold of this life
Pass over, pass through -Sienna Craig
Gate gate paragate parasamgate bodhi svaha.
Gone, gone, gone beyond, gone utterly beyond,
O what an awakening!
– Heart Sutra mantra
(chanted in Sanskrit)
literal translations provided by
Karma Wangyal Gurung
with assistance from Katey Blumenthal
poetic interpretations by Sienna Craig
transliterations by Katey Blumenthal and
Andrea Clearfield
Tse Go La (At the threshold of this life)
Scored for: SATB and SSAA choruses, chamber orchestra, electronics (arrangement for reduced instrumentation and individual treble chorus movements available)
Text: Dr. Sienna Craig and traditional texts from the region of Lo Monthang in Upper Mustang, Nepal, initial translations by Karma Wangyal Gurung and Katey Blumenthal; poetic translations by Sienna Craig; transliterations by Katey Blumenthal and Andrea Clearfield
Language: English,Logay (Mustang dialect of Tibetan)
Description: This cantata is inspired by the composers treks to the restricted and remote Himalayan region of Lo Monthang, Nepal to study and document indigenous Tibetan folk and sacred music. The work incorporates 5 songs from the gar-glu (court) and tro-glu (common) traditions.
Duration: 32 min.
Premiere: World premiere, 4/29/12 with the Mendelssohn Club, Pennsylvania Girlchoir and Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia, conducted by Alan Harler at Holy Trinity Church, Rittenhouse Square, Philadelphia. NYC and NJ premieres on 5/19 and 5/20, 2012 by Schola Cantorum on Hudsun, Deborah King, artistic director, on May 19, 20th, 2012. Performance at University of Texas at Austin with UT Concert Chorale, the Women of the UT Chamber Singers and the UT New Music Ensemble, Dan Welcher, Conductor, March 27, 2013.
Commissioned by: The Mendelssohn Club and the Pennsylvania Girlchoir
Published by: Self-published, Angelfire Press
Contact Andrea Clearfield for score and parts:
WATCH
LISTEN: Excerpts from the premiere. Mendelssohn Club, Pennsylvania Girlchoir, Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia, Alan Harler, conductor
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
LISTEN: Entire work, performed at UT Austin with the UT Concert Chorale, the Women of the UT Chamber Singers and the UT New Music Ensemble, Dan Welcher, Conductor
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
Tse Go La Premiere. Photo by Anthony Creamer
PRESS
“A beautifully constructed and deeply satisfying work of art..a fantastic amalgam of cross-cultural influences, achieved with remarkable lucidity…rich… powerful..the complexity and allure of Tse Go La cries out for more performances.
—Peter Burwasser, Broad Street Review, 5/5/2012
“The warm, direct music Philadelphians have come to expect from Clearfield has become all the more distilled as it is increasingly influenced by travels to the loftiest regions of Nepal, where she collected folk music and Buddhist songs in 2008 and 2010. Tse Go La is the most elaborate work to emerge so far from these experiences.”
Philadelphia Inquirer Preview Story: Andrea Clearfield’s Songs from High Mountains by David Patrick Stearns, 4/28/2012
Tse Go La premiere. Photo by David Gitlitz
Review of NYC premiere: Thresholds – The Healing Power of Music by Rob Wendt
QUOTES
“It’s been a long time since I’ve been as moved by a new work as I was last night. Congratulations on a magnificent piece!”
- Peter Bay, Music Director, Austin Symphony Orchestra
“I don’t know of a contemporary work of this genre that comes close to the emotional and almost extraterrestrial highs that TSE GO LA delivers. Andrea has a wonderful sense of large-scale timing and drama in all her works, but this piece spans the broadest arch of any of her pieces that I’ve heard. From the “elemental” electronic opening, with its rocks and fire and water and wind, to the “Birth” sequence (with meltingly lovely poetry by Sienna Craig), all the way to the chanting of the Heart Sutra in the “Death” music at the close, this is a half-hour of musical magic-making of the highest order. When the last singing bowl ceased ringing, there was a full thirty seconds of silence before anyone dared to applaud—but then the response was overwhelming. This music will resonate within everyone who hears it for a very long time.”
- Dan Welcher, Composer-Conductor, Director, University of Texas New Music Ensemble
“Andrea Clearfield graciously hosted an extensive introduction to her “Tse Go La” cantata to the The Philadelphia Fans of Classical Music. We not only learned about the extensive detail and research that went into the work but also how so many lives have already been affected in the process. What started as a well defined goal rippled through the Tibetan community, and now the world, as that drop broke the surface of an extremely isolated community in danger of losing some of its cultural history. I can’t think of a more compelling story for why the arts are vitally important.”
– Sharon Torello, Founder, LocalArtsLive
PROGRAM NOTES
Pprogram notes by Michael Moore
WEBSTREAM
Listen to the concert webstream from the premiere performance with the Mendelssohn Club, Pennsylvania Girlchoir and Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia
FIELD RECORDINGS
Katey Blumenthal and Andrea Clearfield’s field recordings from Lo Monthang, Nepal are now part of the World Oral Literature database of Endangered Languages and Cultures at the University of Cambridge
TEXT
Tse Go La (At the threshold of this life) – a cantata on rites of passage
I. KYE (Birth)
Bare threshold of this life
Pass over, pass through
Our body, this vessel,
begins and ends anew.
In these mountains of our soul
we are willed into being, elemental:
Earth, water, fire, wind, space.
(Sa, lung, chu, mé, nam kha)
Gifted presence, this human form
Made of mother’s blood, father’s bone,
And that hidden inner spring.
This laboring night
Breathe into the hearth-bound
Burnishing of time.
Outside, an owl calls.
Come morning, the whole village will know:
A woman’s spent silence
A child’s crystal cry.
Bare threshold of this life
Pass over, pass through – Sienna Craig
II. Shar Ki Ri (Mountain to the East)
Sung in the Mustang dialect of Tibetan
Do not look toward the mountain toward the east
Look, instead, to the mountain in the west
Look up to the heights, and down to the depths of the mountain
Toward the places of wealth, the pure treasure of the dharma
Do not look toward the mountain toward the east
Look, instead, to the mountain in the west
For this is the root place, the copper-colored paradise of Guru Rinpoche,
The place of pure treasure and excellent perception,
A place of future accomplishment for sentient beings
Do not look toward the hills of India,
Where beautiful cultures like peacocks abound
Do not disturb them
May we be prosperous! – traditional
III. Tse Go La (At the threshold of this life)
Sweet threshold of this life, Pass over, pass through
Sung in the Mustang dialect of Tibetan
At the threshold of this life
A vast lake appeared before me
The lake unfurled like a flower I desired [a young woman]
It was as if the true Buddha appeared threefold, for me to behold
The right side [the father’s side] inspired purity
As there is with an ordained monk, whose knowledge is as vast as the sky
The left side [the mother’s side] is a place of dakini [female deity]
In the tradition of the great consorts
From the high land of the rock strewn hills
I look down upon a beautiful valley
This high mountain pasture nurtures luscious grass,
Just as this is so, it is my karma to wed this beautiful bride -traditional
IV. Kusum (When Queen Kusum Goes as a Bride to Ladakh)
Sung in the Mustang dialect of Tibetan
The Monthang palace rooftop
Is where the girl’s house gods reside.
But from the girl’s own homeland Monthang,
Would they dare to send her away?
To the eastern region of Ladakh
Do you dare send Kusum away?
The four-cornered square room,
Is where the girl’s parents reign.
But from the girl’s own homeland Monthang,
Would they dare to send her away?
To the eastern region of Ladakh
Do you dare send Kusum away?
Past the curtains of the prayer room,
Is where the nobility sit in rows.
But from the girl’s own homeland Monthang,
Would they dare to send her away?
To the eastern region of Ladakh
Do you dare send Kusum away?
The courtyard before the palace
Is where a pair of drummers drum,
But from the girl’s own homeland Monthang,
Would they dare to send her away?
To the eastern region of Ladakh
Do you dare send Kusum away?
Inside the main gate of Monthang,
Is where the girl’s subjects reside,
But from the girl’s own homeland Monthang,
Would they dare to send her away?
To the eastern region of Ladakh
Do you dare send Kusum away?
The area aroung the stupa,
Is where the girl’s friends congregate,
But from the girl’s own homeland Monthang,
Would they dare to send her away?
To the eastern region of Ladakh
Do you dare send Kusum away?
Like the fast patter of youthful footsteps,
In only a window of time could you see her leave
But from the girl’s own homeland Monthang,
Would they dare to send her away?
To the eastern region of Ladakh
Do you dare send Kusum away?
Even the officers of near-by Tingri,
Bow their hats in respect to the Queen.
But from the girl’s own homeland Monthang,
Would they dare to send her away?
To the eastern region of Ladakh
Do you dare send Kusum away? -traditional
V. Re Chung Tso (The performers)
Sung in the Mustang dialect of Tibetan
The playing party, all the musicians and dancers,
The playing party has joined the stage
Come! Turn out to watch the performers,
Performing in honor of Tara (Dolma)
[The Mother who takes us across the ocean of samsara]
Do not be distracted!
Come! Turn out to watch the performers
This performance for Tara, for wealth, prosperity, wellbeing
Come! Turn out to watch the performers,
In this place where the Lhamo [Tibetan opera] is performed
Be generous, as the performers move amongst you
[a request for donations from the audience]
You might say, “I am old,” as you gather for the performance
But turning out to watch the performance –
Oh, these times make you feel young!
The king of the golden hill, he also dances,
Performing in honor of Tara,
Here, on the spacious plain
The king and commoners alike,
They dance on the golden hill,
Requesting good fortune and blessings,
In honor of Tara,
Dance, dance, dance around. -traditional
VI. SHI (Death)
Worn threshold of this life
Pass over, pass through
In this land of many stones
A fossil unearthed by river’s course
Mirrors our own tumblings,
In the waning hours of our time
You whose name I do not know –
Old woman: faded apron, weathered hands
Old man: not seeing but to dream –
I meet you here, grateful
For this most true of destinations.
Start for this place, O gnarled soul,
Released from certainty
Along the journey of becoming.
What is nascent here,
In this transcendence, this in between,
Is nothing short of miracle:
Dried seed, green shoot, pressing
Toward the surface
Craving rain and stars and sun.
Bare threshold of this life
Pass over, pass through -Sienna Craig
Gate gate paragate parasamgate bodhi svaha.
Gone, gone, gone beyond, gone utterly beyond,
O what an awakening!
– Heart Sutra mantra
(chanted in Sanskrit)
literal translations provided by
Karma Wangyal Gurung
with assistance from Katey Blumenthal
poetic interpretations by Sienna Craig
transliterations by Katey Blumenthal and
Andrea Clearfield