Official site of composer Andrea Clearfield. Biography, list of works with audio, score samples, reviews and program notes, photographs, upcoming performances.
Scored for: low horn and piano, or trombone and piano Duration: 9:35 min. World Premiere: 2014, Salon Dolce, Tokyo, Japan. US Premiere, Peabody Conservatory of Music, Baltimore, MD with Denise Tryon, Tomoko Kanamaru, piano Commissioned by: Denise Tryon, 4th Horn, The Philadelphia Orchestra Published by: Angelfire Press. Distributed by Black Tea Music. Contact Trudy Chan for score and parts Recorded onBridge Records: SO-LOW, Denise Tryon and Tomoko Kanamaru. Ava Ordman released the trombone arrangement on Blue Griffen Label. Purchase here.
NOTES:
River Melos was commissioned by, and is dedicated to, Denise Tryon, 4th Horn in the Philadelphia Orchestra. The composer also arranged the work for trombone and piano for trombonist Ava Ordman.
The River Melos (river melody) takes the form of a flowing theme in the horn and piano. Heard in the initial horn melody and the piano undercurrents, it undergoes development throughout the work and is shared between the two instruments. The work takes its inspiration from the beautiful Roaring Fork River in Aspen, Colorado, where the composer spent many summers since early days as a music festival student. The river changes size and energy, from powerful white waters into peaceful streams and deep pools, through canyons and into lakes. In River Melos, a melody winds through the smooth and rocky places, like the river, like the journey of our lives, eventually finding a spacious resting place.
The World Premiere took place on June 1, 2014 at the Dolce Wind Instrument Concert Hall in Tokyo, Japan. The U.S. premiere took place on June 15, 2014 at the Peabody Conservatory of Music in Baltimore, MD. Both performances featured Denise Tryon, Horn and Tomoko Kanamaru, Piano. The work was released on the CD So-Low on Bridge Records(Bridge 9455) in August, 2015 with Denise Tryon, Horn and Julie Nishimura,
Piano. The trombone arrangement was recorded with Ava Ordman, trombone for 2017 release on Blue Griffen Label.
The composer wishes to express her gratitude to Yaddo in Saratoga Springs, NY, Bob Camp in Aspen, Colorado and the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts for providing invaluable time and space to create this work.
LISTEN:
REVIEWS:
The new works for horn and piano such as Peter Askim’s A Door in the Dark, Nathan Pawelek’s Irremediable Breakdown, Brett Miller’s Hunting Songs, and River Melos by Andrea Clearfield highlight the low horn as a solo voice and not the often heard supporting voice. These are all exciting and important contributions to the low horn repertoire and I hope they frequently find their way into the performance hall. It is refreshing to hear this range of the horn treated as an individual voice that is capable of conveying as much musicality as the horn’s brilliant upper register.
The Horn Call, 2015
Tryon plays these works and other winning pieces by Nathan Pawelek, Dante Yenque and Andrea Clearfield with sonorous fluidity and dexterity.
It’s About Time offers the listener a versatile and virtuosic sampling of some very worthy new music. In the classical field, the trombone is arguably under-appreciated and under-served as a featured solo instrument. With this recording, Ava Ordman brings it into the well-deserved spotlight. Andrea Clearfield’s The River Melos (River Melody), composed in 2014, opens the album. Almost constant flowing notes in the accompaniment carry the listener along the river’s journey “through smooth and rocky places…like the journey of our lives.” The attractive, lyrical theme changes shape, passing from one instrument to the other, sometimes serene, sometimes tumultuous, exploring a variety of densities and colors, finally coming to expression in a relaxed trombone solo, followed by a simple conclusion—a “spacious resting place.”
International Alliance for Women in Music Journal, Vol. 23, No. 2, 2017. It’s About Time: Music for Trombone by Women Composers, Blue Griffen Recording BGR427 by Alyssa Reit
River Melos
Scored for: low horn and piano, or trombone and piano
Duration: 9:35 min.
World Premiere: 2014, Salon Dolce, Tokyo, Japan. US Premiere, Peabody Conservatory of Music, Baltimore, MD with Denise Tryon, Tomoko Kanamaru, piano
Commissioned by: Denise Tryon, 4th Horn, The Philadelphia Orchestra
Published by: Angelfire Press. Distributed by Black Tea Music. Contact Trudy Chan for score and parts
Recorded on Bridge Records: SO-LOW, Denise Tryon and Tomoko Kanamaru. Ava Ordman released the trombone arrangement on Blue Griffen Label. Purchase here.
See preview score pages:
River_Melos sample pages
NOTES:
River Melos was commissioned by, and is dedicated to, Denise Tryon, 4th Horn in the Philadelphia Orchestra. The composer also arranged the work for trombone and piano for trombonist Ava Ordman.
The River Melos (river melody) takes the form of a flowing theme in the horn and piano. Heard in the initial horn melody and the piano undercurrents, it undergoes development throughout the work and is shared between the two instruments. The work takes its inspiration from the beautiful Roaring Fork River in Aspen, Colorado, where the composer spent many summers since early days as a music festival student. The river changes size and energy, from powerful white waters into peaceful streams and deep pools, through canyons and into lakes. In River Melos, a melody winds through the smooth and rocky places, like the river, like the journey of our lives, eventually finding a spacious resting place.
The World Premiere took place on June 1, 2014 at the Dolce Wind Instrument Concert Hall in Tokyo, Japan. The U.S. premiere took place on June 15, 2014 at the Peabody Conservatory of Music in Baltimore, MD. Both performances featured Denise Tryon, Horn and Tomoko Kanamaru, Piano. The work was released on the CD So-Low on Bridge Records(Bridge 9455) in August, 2015 with Denise Tryon, Horn and Julie Nishimura,
Piano. The trombone arrangement was recorded with Ava Ordman, trombone for 2017 release on Blue Griffen Label.
The composer wishes to express her gratitude to Yaddo in Saratoga Springs, NY, Bob Camp in Aspen, Colorado and the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts for providing invaluable time and space to create this work.
LISTEN:
REVIEWS:
The new works for horn and piano such as Peter Askim’s A Door in the Dark, Nathan Pawelek’s Irremediable Breakdown, Brett Miller’s Hunting Songs, and River Melos by Andrea Clearfield highlight the low horn as a solo voice and not the often heard supporting voice. These are all exciting and important contributions to the low horn repertoire and I hope they frequently find their way into the performance hall. It is refreshing to hear this range of the horn treated as an individual voice that is capable of conveying as much musicality as the horn’s brilliant upper register.
The Horn Call, 2015
Tryon plays these works and other winning pieces by Nathan Pawelek, Dante Yenque and Andrea Clearfield with sonorous fluidity and dexterity.
Grammophone, Donald Rosenberg, January, 2016
It’s About Time offers the listener a versatile and virtuosic sampling of some very worthy new music. In the classical field, the trombone is arguably under-appreciated and under-served as a featured solo instrument. With this recording, Ava Ordman brings it into the well-deserved spotlight. Andrea Clearfield’s The River Melos (River Melody), composed in 2014, opens the album. Almost constant flowing notes in the accompaniment carry the listener along the river’s journey “through smooth and rocky places…like the journey of our lives.” The attractive, lyrical theme changes shape, passing from one instrument to the other, sometimes serene, sometimes tumultuous, exploring a variety of densities and colors, finally coming to expression in a relaxed trombone solo, followed by a simple conclusion—a “spacious resting place.”
International Alliance for Women in Music Journal, Vol. 23, No. 2, 2017. It’s About Time: Music for Trombone by Women Composers, Blue Griffen Recording BGR427 by Alyssa Reit