Official site of composer Andrea Clearfield. Biography, list of works with audio, score samples, reviews and program notes, photographs, upcoming performances.
Scored for: string quartet (string quintet and string orchestra arrangement also available) Duration: 11:15 min. Premiere: 5/11/2025 by the Erinys Quartet, presented by The Philadelphia Chamber Music Society Commissioned by: Philadelphia Chamber Music Society with sponsorship from Diane and Lawrence Blum Published by: Angelfire Press. Contact Trudy Chan at Black Tea Music for score and parts.
NOTES
if each day falls inside each night by Andrea Clearfield was premiered by the Erinys Quartet at the American Philosophical Society in Philadelphia on May 11, 2025. The quartet was commissioned by the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society as part of the Chamber Music for All (CMFA) project, which seeks to broaden the audience for contemporary chamber music, co-sponsored by PCMS and Diane and Lawrence Blum. The work was inspired by a poem and a piece of art. Both explore the possibility of retrieving, or reaching for, points of light from a place of darkness. The poem, after which the quartet is named, is by the Chilean poet Pablo Neruda, who writes about a well, fashioned by the descent of the day inside the embrace of the night. The poet urges us to sit on the edge of this well of darkness where clarity is imprisoned, to fish for fallen light, patiently. Mia Bosna created evocative artwork entitled “Reaching Through”. As I was writing this piece, I felt a deep, almost aching compassion for humanity and this world–and always the possibility of light. The work unfolds in one movement. A simple four-note theme is heard in variation, each time surrounded by space and dissolving into string harmonics, which for me represented points of light. In the coda another variation appears and descends, like a final reaching inside the well, as if to pull out a new place of what could be. —Andrea Clearfield
The composer also arranged this work for string quintet for North/South Consonance. The premiere of this arrangement will take place on January 12, 2026 at Christ & St. Stephen’s Church, NYC. Scores will be available for the quintet arrangement following the premiere.
if each day falls inside each night
Reaching Through by Mia Bosna
Scored for: string quartet (string quintet and string orchestra arrangement also available)
Duration: 11:15 min.
Premiere: 5/11/2025 by the Erinys Quartet, presented by The Philadelphia Chamber Music Society
Commissioned by: Philadelphia Chamber Music Society with sponsorship from Diane and Lawrence Blum
Published by: Angelfire Press. Contact Trudy Chan at Black Tea Music for score and parts.
NOTES
if each day falls inside each night by Andrea Clearfield was premiered by the Erinys Quartet at the American Philosophical Society in Philadelphia on May 11, 2025. The quartet was commissioned by the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society as part of the Chamber Music for All (CMFA) project, which seeks to broaden the audience for contemporary chamber music, co-sponsored by PCMS and Diane and Lawrence Blum. The work was inspired by a poem and a piece of art. Both explore the possibility of retrieving, or reaching for, points of light from a place of darkness. The poem, after which the quartet is named, is by the Chilean poet Pablo Neruda, who writes about a well, fashioned by the descent of the day inside the embrace of the night. The poet urges us to sit on the edge of this well of darkness where clarity is imprisoned, to fish for fallen light, patiently. Mia Bosna created evocative artwork entitled “Reaching Through”. As I was writing this piece, I felt a deep, almost aching compassion for humanity and this world–and always the possibility of light. The work unfolds in one movement. A simple four-note theme is heard in variation, each time surrounded by space and dissolving into string harmonics, which for me represented points of light. In the coda another variation appears and descends, like a final reaching inside the well, as if to pull out a new place of what could be. —Andrea Clearfield
The composer also arranged this work for string quintet for North/South Consonance. The premiere of this arrangement will take place on January 12, 2026 at Christ & St. Stephen’s Church, NYC. Scores will be available for the quintet arrangement following the premiere.
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