Official site of composer Andrea Clearfield. Biography, list of works with audio, score samples, reviews and program notes, photographs, upcoming performances.
Scored for: baritone, chorus and piano. Also available for baritone and piano. Text: Ariana Kramer Language: English Duration: 20 min. Premiere: August 30, 2017 Mark Jackson, Baritone, Andrea Clearfield, Piano, Taos, NM Community Chorus For: The Leopold Writing Program Published by: Self-published, Angelfire Press More info and complete text:here.
Contact Andrea Clearfield for score and parts:
Andrea with Mark Jackson, baritone and Ariana Kramer at the premiere, Harwood Museum, Taos, NM, August 30, 2017
In 2017, Ariana Kramer and composer Andrea Clearfield were awarded an Aldo & Estella Leopold Writers Residency through the Leopold Writing Program. The residency was held at Aldo Leopold’s Mi Casita 1912 cabin in Tres Piedras, NM where Andrea lived and worked during the summer of 2017. As their collaborative project, Ariana wrote a poetic text which Andrea set to music for baritone, piano and chorus. “Transformed by Fire” is a five movement song cycle exploring Aldo Leopold’s changing perception of wolves and the necessary role they play in our ecosystems.
”Transformed by Fire” was presented at the Harwood Museum of Art in Taos, New Mexico in August 2017 with baritone Mark Jackson, pianist Andrea Clearfield and members of the Taos Community Chorus. An encore performance was offered in September 2017 in response to audience request. “Transformed by Fire” was presented by SOMOS on April 25, 2018 at 7 p.m. at the Harwood Museum of Art in Taos as part of National Poetry Month events.
Ariana and Andrea are currently seeking funding to expand their collaborative piece into a twelve-movement evening-length work for baritone, chorus and chamber orchestra.
Transformed by Fire
FireSpirit Wolf
www.MiaBosna.com
Scored for: baritone, chorus and piano. Also available for baritone and piano.
Text: Ariana Kramer
Language: English
Duration: 20 min.
Premiere: August 30, 2017 Mark Jackson, Baritone, Andrea Clearfield, Piano, Taos, NM Community Chorus
For: The Leopold Writing Program
Published by: Self-published, Angelfire Press
More info and complete text:here.
Contact Andrea Clearfield for score and parts:
See preview score pages:Transformed by Fire II. Spark
ABOUT
Andrea with Mark Jackson, baritone and Ariana Kramer at the premiere, Harwood Museum, Taos, NM, August 30, 2017
In 2017, Ariana Kramer and composer Andrea Clearfield were awarded an Aldo & Estella Leopold Writers Residency through the Leopold Writing Program. The residency was held at Aldo Leopold’s Mi Casita 1912 cabin in Tres Piedras, NM where Andrea lived and worked during the summer of 2017. As their collaborative project, Ariana wrote a poetic text which Andrea set to music for baritone, piano and chorus. “Transformed by Fire” is a five movement song cycle exploring Aldo Leopold’s changing perception of wolves and the necessary role they play in our ecosystems.
”Transformed by Fire” was presented at the Harwood Museum of Art in Taos, New Mexico in August 2017 with baritone Mark Jackson, pianist Andrea Clearfield and members of the Taos Community Chorus. An encore performance was offered in September 2017 in response to audience request. “Transformed by Fire” was presented by SOMOS on April 25, 2018 at 7 p.m. at the Harwood Museum of Art in Taos as part of National Poetry Month events.
Ariana and Andrea are currently seeking funding to expand their collaborative piece into a twelve-movement evening-length work for baritone, chorus and chamber orchestra.
Read Andrea’s article on Transformed by Fire published in the Blue Mountain Center Commons.
Mi Casita, Aldo Leopold’s 1912 cabin in Très Piedres, NM
ANDREA’S PRE-CONCERT REMARKS
LINKS
Mi Casita Writing Residency
Evoking Aldo Leopold’s Life Through Music And Poetry by Nell Shaw Cohen, October 24, 2017
Background on Transformed by Fire at www.arianakramer.com
TEXT
“Transformed by Fire”
Poetry by Ariana Kramer © 2017
I. Encounter
A mother plays
at the river bank,
crosses water.
Her yearlings
frolic.
She raises her head.
I see her eyes.
They burn
with a green fire.
My shot a thought ringing out.
My bullet the force
of Man against Wolf.
I am young.
I stand on rimrock,
look to dark mountain skies.
My thought:
fewer wolves, more deer;
no wolves, hunter’s paradise.
I still see her eyes – still.
They burn me
with a fierce green fire.
II. Spark
A spark
smolders, ignites,
passes through wingtips
of migrating cranes.
I kneel
to small green stems of white stars
I catch their tiny flash in my hands.
III. Bowstring
I have drawn my bowstring
across my heart. I have found my love.
We have taught our children
to swim, to fish, to track, to hunt,
to learn the land.
We have taught them to love
the smell of campfire supper-smoke.
Around the dancing flames
we sing our songs. I whistle along.
We plant trees
to restore the lonely land.
I have drawn my bowstring
across my heart. I have found my love.
We have taught our children
to feel, to see, to hear, to know,
to love the land.
We have taught them to listen
when the wild geese call.
We have taught them to love
the wild places in their hearts.
Together we have learned to love.
IV. Consequence
No wolves. Hunter’s paradise?
A foolish thought. A foolish thought.
I walk in a wolfless wilderness.
I see deer – dead,
thin from starvation.
Too many to feed.
Trees stripped bare.
What have we done
to the wilderness?
V. Understanding
I am older.
I know, now.
A green flame
burns in each of us.
Wolf enlivens the land
like a fragrant fire.
Wolf runs deer
like water over mountains.
Saplings grow strong.
Bird song fills their branches.
I know, now. I know, now –
a green fire, the green fire.
Everything on, over and in
the land belongs together.
Composing Transformed by Fire at Aldo Leopold’s cabin in Tres Piedras, NM
Ariana Kramer and Andrea, winners of the Aldo Leopold Writing Residency Fellowship, in front of Aldo Leopold’s cabin, “Mi Casita”
Mi Casita, Aldo Leopold’s cabin, Tres Piedras, NM
Volcanic rock fireplace, Mi Casita