Andrea Clearfield – Composer
Official site of composer Andrea Clearfield. Biography, list of works with audio, score samples, reviews and program notes, photographs, upcoming performances.
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When we Listen

Scored for: SATB chorus
Text: Susan Windle
Duration: 4 minutes
Commissioned by: Singing City. In celebration of its 75th anniversary, Singing City commissioned 27 composers to write short works to create the Singing City Songbook. This compilation is intended for community singing everywhere—its themes echo the human experience, with messages of unity, hope, love, and the ties that bind.
Premiere: Singing City, Old First Reformed Church, Philadelphia, Nov. 6, 2022
Published by: Angelfire Press. Distributed by Black Tea Music. Contact Trudy Chan for score and parts. Also available for purchase by Singing City as part of their Singing City Songbook here. For questions, contact Andrea:

NOTES

NOTES: This work was commissioned by Singing City for their Songbook in honor of their 75th Year Anniversary. They commissioned 24 composers to write works that resonate with Singing City’s mission and can be taken into community settings where they will be shared and taught, inviting everyone to join together in song. When We Listen is set to a poem by Susan Windle. The piece speaks to our need for connection and what is possible in humanity when truly we listen to one another – a timeless and timely message. The composer extends her gratitude to the Banff Centre for Arts & Creativity for time and space to create this work.

PERFORMANCE NOTES
This piece may be performed with or without the Bass part.
It may be done as SSA treble choir (S2 sings A, and A sings T), SAT, or SATB

The entire work may be sung more than once, ending with the Coda. The audience may join in m. 1-6, the “refrain” in m. 11, and the Coda. Measures 17-19 may be repeated as spoken word or whispers, each individual at their own pace, gradually diminishing into silence.

WATCH

https://vimeo.com/771296194

TEXT

THIS THING WE DO
Poetry by Susan Windle

When we listen deeply, each to each
you to me and I to you

there is a bridge between us, stretched
across a glistening gorge.

The bridge itself is lovely
a slender, swaying thing

lovely as the snaking river
lovely as the reaching rock.

You and I, a river and a bridge –
That’s what I mean by heaven. That’s

what I’ve been trying to say.

© 2012 Andrea Clearfield

All images are excerpts from paintings by Andrea's mother, Louise Clearfield