Official site of composer Andrea Clearfield. Biography, list of works with audio, score samples, reviews and program notes, photographs, upcoming performances.
Spirit Island on American Canvas, Dolce Suono Trio, Innova Label
Scored for: flute, cello and piano. Arr. available for flute, double bass and piano Duration: 16 min. Premiere: 2/97 Temple University, Rock Hall. Cynthia Folio, Jeffrey Solow, Charles Abramovic. Premiere of bass version by Carol Wincenc, Fred Bretschger and Joy Cline at the Sarasota Music Festival Recording: Dolce Suono Trio, Mimi Stillman, Artistic Director, Innova Label. Purchase CD here. Published by: Angelfire Press. Contact Trudy Chan at Black Tea Music for score and parts.
Spirit Island (1996) was inspired by a canoe trip on Maligne Lake, located in Jasper National Park in the Canadian Rocky Mountains. Spirit Island is a small island on the south end of the lake. This piece, a fantasia on the visual/aural world of the island, explores both the light and dark qualities of the landscape; tranquil and timeless as well as haunting and foreboding in its mystique. The first movement takes the form of a loosely woven set of variations based on a four note theme. The variations move through different moods and colors reflecting the changing light and weather. The second movement, with its syncopated rhythms and jagged harmonies, recalls the experience of traveling through choppy waters. Spirit Island was premiered at Temple University, Philadelphia by Cynthia Folio, Jeffrey Solow and Charles Abramovic in 1996. An arrangement for flute, bass and piano was premiered at the Sarasota Music Festival in June, 1998 with Carol Wincenc, Fred Bretschger, and Joy Cline.
LISTEN
YOUTUBE
REVIEWS
“If any piece pushes the coloristic tendencies of the group, it is Andrea Clearfield’s Spirit Island, the only work on the CD not commissioned by Dolce Suono. Inspired by a trip on Maligne Lake in Jasper National Park, Clearfield paints a vivid picture of the landscape. Her careful use of register and timbral modifications (from the use of natural harmonics and glissandi to simply requesting that the cellist not vibrate) creates a spacious sound world through which Dolce Suono expertly guides the listener.
Clearfield’s treatment of material particularly allows for this space. She is more gestural than the other three composers, her composition having more to do with the progression of space than contrasting melodies. This is especially true of her first movement, “Variations on a Dream,” in which she puts a four-note idea through a set of variations. Because of her attention to texture and excellent orchestration, this idea never feels overbearing. Instead, it creates a wholly natural evolution of music—it is easy to see how the furious closing section of this movement could have been contained in the spacious, soft piano clusters that open the work.”
– I care if you listen, review of Dolce Suono’s CD American Canvas, James May, May 1, 2018. Read entire review here.
“The final work on the program was the 1996 work Spirit Island by Philadelphia composer Andrea Clearfield. The title refers to an island in Maligne Lake in Alberta’s Jasper National Park that can be reached by canoe. The first movement, “Variations on a Dream,” is ethereal and deeply spiritual. By contrast the second movement is program music with the first and last sections evoking a brisk trip through choppy waters while the middle section calls to mind a tranquil stroll on the picturesque island.”
-Ted McIrvine, Classical Voice of North Carolina, Asheville, N.C., June 14, 2009
“Spirit Island by Andrea Clearfield alludes to nature and its beauties, through an ethereal and mystical passage…All the work is undoubtedly embellished by the mastery of the components of the Dolce Suono Trio, which give proof of great technical expertise and depth of interpretation, giving us a CD of great artistic depth.”
-Luciano Feliciani, Kathodic Review of Dolce Suono Trio’s “American Canvas” CD, Innova Label, March 11, 2018
Spirit Island: Variations on a Dream
Spirit Island on American Canvas, Dolce Suono Trio,
Innova Label
Scored for: flute, cello and piano. Arr. available for flute, double bass and piano
Duration: 16 min.
Premiere: 2/97 Temple University, Rock Hall. Cynthia Folio, Jeffrey Solow, Charles Abramovic. Premiere of bass version by Carol Wincenc, Fred Bretschger and Joy Cline at the Sarasota Music Festival
Recording: Dolce Suono Trio, Mimi Stillman, Artistic Director, Innova Label. Purchase CD here.
Published by: Angelfire Press. Contact Trudy Chan at Black Tea Music for score and parts.
See preview score pages: SPIRIT ISLAND SCORE EXCERPT (PDF)
PROGRAM NOTES
Spirit Island (1996) was inspired by a canoe trip on Maligne Lake, located in Jasper National Park in the Canadian Rocky Mountains. Spirit Island is a small island on the south end of the lake. This piece, a fantasia on the visual/aural world of the island, explores both the light and dark qualities of the landscape; tranquil and timeless as well as haunting and foreboding in its mystique. The first movement takes the form of a loosely woven set of variations based on a four note theme. The variations move through different moods and colors reflecting the changing light and weather. The second movement, with its syncopated rhythms and jagged harmonies, recalls the experience of traveling through choppy waters. Spirit Island was premiered at Temple University, Philadelphia by Cynthia Folio, Jeffrey Solow and Charles Abramovic in 1996. An arrangement for flute, bass and piano was premiered at the Sarasota Music Festival in June, 1998 with Carol Wincenc, Fred Bretschger, and Joy Cline.
LISTEN
YOUTUBE
REVIEWS
“If any piece pushes the coloristic tendencies of the group, it is Andrea Clearfield’s Spirit Island, the only work on the CD not commissioned by Dolce Suono. Inspired by a trip on Maligne Lake in Jasper National Park, Clearfield paints a vivid picture of the landscape. Her careful use of register and timbral modifications (from the use of natural harmonics and glissandi to simply requesting that the cellist not vibrate) creates a spacious sound world through which Dolce Suono expertly guides the listener.
Clearfield’s treatment of material particularly allows for this space. She is more gestural than the other three composers, her composition having more to do with the progression of space than contrasting melodies. This is especially true of her first movement, “Variations on a Dream,” in which she puts a four-note idea through a set of variations. Because of her attention to texture and excellent orchestration, this idea never feels overbearing. Instead, it creates a wholly natural evolution of music—it is easy to see how the furious closing section of this movement could have been contained in the spacious, soft piano clusters that open the work.”
– I care if you listen, review of Dolce Suono’s CD American Canvas, James May, May 1, 2018. Read entire review here.
“The final work on the program was the 1996 work Spirit Island by Philadelphia composer Andrea Clearfield. The title refers to an island in Maligne Lake in Alberta’s Jasper National Park that can be reached by canoe. The first movement, “Variations on a Dream,” is ethereal and deeply spiritual. By contrast the second movement is program music with the first and last sections evoking a brisk trip through choppy waters while the middle section calls to mind a tranquil stroll on the picturesque island.”
-Ted McIrvine, Classical Voice of North Carolina, Asheville, N.C., June 14, 2009
“Spirit Island by Andrea Clearfield alludes to nature and its beauties, through an ethereal and mystical passage…All the work is undoubtedly embellished by the mastery of the components of the Dolce Suono Trio, which give proof of great technical expertise and depth of interpretation, giving us a CD of great artistic depth.”
-Luciano Feliciani, Kathodic Review of Dolce Suono Trio’s “American Canvas” CD, Innova Label, March 11, 2018