Official site of composer Andrea Clearfield. Biography, list of works with audio, score samples, reviews and program notes, photographs, upcoming performances.
Scored for: SSAA (divisi), string quartet (or piano) Text:Susan Windle Language: English Duration: 7:30 min. Premiere: May 14, 2005, Anna Crusis Women’s Choir, World Café Live, Philadelphia Commissioned by: The Anna Crusis Women’s Choir in celebration of their 30 Year Anniversary, Jane Hulting, musical director Published by: Boosey & Hawkes. Purchase here or here. See preview score pages:THE SHAPE OF MY SOUL CHORAL SCORE EXCERPT (PDF)
NOTES
The Shape of My Soul is a joyous play on the fluid nature of our souls. Poet Susan Windle likens the soul to a sunflower that reaches, bows and transforms shape – all with a “mellifluous laugh”. The music employs rich, colorful harmonies that move and shift, vital upbeat rhythms and lyrical melismatic lines that create various and contrasting musical “shapes” leading to a dance-like celebratory section. Chorus may enjoy exploring the improvisational ‘breath rhythms” at the close of the work. The work is available for chorus and string quartet, or chorus and piano.
QUOTE
“A really good work for women’s chorus and string quartet! Vocal lines are fresh, fluid, and rhythmically lively with interesting color shifts. Mostly SSAA, needs very good string players. Piece is challenging and the rewards are great. Andrea writes with intelligence, humor, and balance. It was a delight working with Andrea. I knew I could count on a creative commission piece that would work for us.”
–Jane Hulting, Music Director, Anna Crusis Women’s Choir
The stem
I struggle to keep straight
is a fluid thing:
the head I would hold up
has no trouble
bowing down.
And what I would keep
new and moist
shrivels
with such ease,
as if my soul enjoys
every second
of it schanging form,
and hidden
in each anxious fear is
a long
mellifluous
laugh–
I have met
the shape of my soul.
What cannot be seen
is perfectly
clear.
The Shape of My Soul
Scored for: SSAA (divisi), string quartet (or piano)
Text: Susan Windle
Language: English
Duration: 7:30 min.
Premiere: May 14, 2005, Anna Crusis Women’s Choir, World Café Live, Philadelphia
Commissioned by: The Anna Crusis Women’s Choir in celebration of their 30 Year Anniversary, Jane Hulting, musical director
Published by: Boosey & Hawkes. Purchase here or here.
See preview score pages: THE SHAPE OF MY SOUL CHORAL SCORE EXCERPT (PDF)
NOTES
The Shape of My Soul is a joyous play on the fluid nature of our souls. Poet Susan Windle likens the soul to a sunflower that reaches, bows and transforms shape – all with a “mellifluous laugh”. The music employs rich, colorful harmonies that move and shift, vital upbeat rhythms and lyrical melismatic lines that create various and contrasting musical “shapes” leading to a dance-like celebratory section. Chorus may enjoy exploring the improvisational ‘breath rhythms” at the close of the work. The work is available for chorus and string quartet, or chorus and piano.
QUOTE
“A really good work for women’s chorus and string quartet! Vocal lines are fresh, fluid, and rhythmically lively with interesting color shifts. Mostly SSAA, needs very good string players. Piece is challenging and the rewards are great. Andrea writes with intelligence, humor, and balance. It was a delight working with Andrea. I knew I could count on a creative commission piece that would work for us.”
–Jane Hulting, Music Director, Anna Crusis Women’s Choir
WATCH
TEXT
Sunflowers
by Susan Windle
I have seen
the shape of my soul.
The stem
I struggle to keep straight
is a fluid thing:
the head I would hold up
has no trouble
bowing down.
And what I would keep
new and moist
shrivels
with such ease,
as if my soul enjoys
every second
of it schanging form,
and hidden
in each anxious fear is
a long
mellifluous
laugh–
I have met
the shape of my soul.
What cannot be seen
is perfectly
clear.