Official site of composer Andrea Clearfield. Biography, list of works with audio, score samples, reviews and program notes, photographs, upcoming performances.
Scored for: violin solo, flute, oboe, clarinet, percussion, harp, piano, strings. Also available for violin and piano, or soprano saxophone and piano. An arrangement for viola and piano was created for violist Matthew Cohen.
Duration: 19:08 min. Premiere: Orchestra 2001, James Freeman, artistic director, Gloria Justen, soloist Commissioned by: Orchestra 2001 Recording: upcoming 2020 recording with Gloria Justen, Orchestra 2001, James Freeman conducting on Innova Label Published by: Self-published, Angelfire Press
Contact Andrea Clearfield for score and parts:
“You always take a chance when commissioning a new piece. Will it be what you’re hoping for? The remarkably positive answer came when I first saw Andrea’s score. A wonderful piece, full of emotion and orchestral color, and a real tour de force for the solo violinist. It’s a piece that should be played by violinists everywhere.”
–James Freeman, Artistic Director, Orchestra 2001
“Andrea Clearfield is a great talent. I ‘painted’ one of her compositions called ‘ROMANZA’ !!! It is an honor to have my art shown on the same page…”
–Annie Haslam, vocalist from the band Renaissance
REVIEWS
“Rich and complex, the sound was delicious to behold.”
- Chicago Classical Music, Tuesday, January 11, 2011, Kathryn J Allwine Bacasmot
“Andrea Clearfield juggles traditional lyricism and genial polytonal collages with a virtuosity that never contradicted the title of her new piece, Romanza, premiered over the weekend by violinist Gloria Justen and Orchestra 2001. It could be a lasting contribution to chamber concerto repertoire.”
- The Philadelphia Inquirer, Tuesday, April 17, 2007, David Patrick Stearns
“Andrea Clearfield offers a nineteen-minute Romanza for Violin and Chamber Orchestra (2007), really a concerto in several connected sections, including two cadenzas. There are also solo passages for oboe, double-bass, and piano (instruments that were — like the violin — played across the decades by one or more members of the Freeman family). This Romanza is a delight to the ear, sometimes evoking the bittersweet moods of Samuel Barber’s famous violin concerto (1939) and even, toward the end, a bit of late Brahms. It makes me eager to hear more of Clearfield’s music.”
“I can’t resist adding a few outstanding instrumental CDs that got my attention…a remarkable CD of three previously unrecorded pieces by Kevin Puts (for the same instruments that Schubert used in the “Trout” Quintet), Andrea Clearfield, and the late Gunther Schuller.”
“Andrea Clearfield’s Romanza for Violin and Chamber Orchestra was deliberately written to evoke some of the great 19th century romantic repertoire, inspired by an image of Florence Freeman playing the violin with her family. The work is in a single movement and played here by soloist Gloria Justen with an instrumental ensemble of 11 players. Clearfield’s style has a lyrical romanticism to it combined with a richness and complexity of harmony. The soloist’s interaction with the ensemble makes it feel like large scale chamber music rather than a 19th century concert, with some wonderfully rhapsodic moments. The work is in a sequence of sections, each varying the emotional temperature and with some cadenza moments for the soloist (including a duet with the ensemble’s double bass in a nod to Henry and Florence Freeman’s instruments).” – Robert Hugill in Planet Hugill, October 28, 2020
LISTEN
PROGRAM NOTES
Romanza (2007) was commissioned by Orchestra 2001, James Freeman, Artistic Director, in commemoration of his mother Florence Knope Freeman (1908-2002), with additional funding provided by Florence Freeman’s family, the National Endowment for the Arts, Jonathan Hodgson in Memory of Celia Hodgson (1912-2004) and the The Pew Charitable Trusts.
Florence Knope Freeman was an accomplished violinist. It was difficult for a woman to win a job with an orchestra at that time and so Florence primarily played chamber music. The process for writing this piece began with viewing photographs of Florence and her family, listening to recordings of her playing and obtaining a list of pieces that she loved. One photo in particular captured my imagination – of Florence playing a quartet with her family in the living room. I decided to write a concerto that would pay tribute to some of the great Romantic 19th Century chamber music repertoire.
The work is essentially about melody and memory. It begins with an introduction that builds to a lyrical theme, followed by a second, simpler theme featuring double stops in sixths. Syncopated material is introduced and the themes are developed, giving way to a section of propulsive rhythms and fragments of romantic musical gestures. Two cadenzas frame the central portion of the work; the solo violin plays a duet with the bass and is later joined by the oboe and piano, a musical reminiscence of the photograph of Florence performing with her husband (bass) and two sons (oboe and piano). Following the second cadenza is a recapitulation of the main themes in variation. A long coda ensues wherein previous material and thematic references from the past emerge and dissolve into a veiled tableau.
I am grateful to James Freeman for the honor of writing this work, to violinist Gloria Justen for her beautiful playing, the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts where the work was sketched, The Kimmel Harding Nelson Center for the Arts where the violin/piano reduction was created and Yaddo where the orchestration was completed.
Romanza for Violin and Chamber Orchestra
Gloria Justen
Scored for: violin solo, flute, oboe, clarinet, percussion, harp, piano, strings. Also available for violin and piano, or soprano saxophone and piano. An arrangement for viola and piano was created for violist Matthew Cohen.
Duration: 19:08 min.
Premiere: Orchestra 2001, James Freeman, artistic director, Gloria Justen, soloist
Commissioned by: Orchestra 2001
Recording: upcoming 2020 recording with Gloria Justen, Orchestra 2001, James Freeman conducting on Innova Label
Published by: Self-published, Angelfire Press
Contact Andrea Clearfield for score and parts:
See preview score pages: ROMANZA FULL SCORE EXCERPT (PDF)
QUOTE
“You always take a chance when commissioning a new piece. Will it be what you’re hoping for? The remarkably positive answer came when I first saw Andrea’s score. A wonderful piece, full of emotion and orchestral color, and a real tour de force for the solo violinist. It’s a piece that should be played by violinists everywhere.”
–James Freeman, Artistic Director, Orchestra 2001
“Andrea Clearfield is a great talent. I ‘painted’ one of her compositions called ‘ROMANZA’ !!! It is an honor to have my art shown on the same page…”
–Annie Haslam, vocalist from the band Renaissance
REVIEWS
“Rich and complex, the sound was delicious to behold.”
- Chicago Classical Music, Tuesday, January 11, 2011, Kathryn J Allwine Bacasmot
“Andrea Clearfield juggles traditional lyricism and genial polytonal collages with a virtuosity that never contradicted the title of her new piece, Romanza, premiered over the weekend by violinist Gloria Justen and Orchestra 2001. It could be a lasting contribution to chamber concerto repertoire.”
- The Philadelphia Inquirer, Tuesday, April 17, 2007, David Patrick Stearns
“Andrea Clearfield offers a nineteen-minute Romanza for Violin and Chamber Orchestra (2007), really a concerto in several connected sections, including two cadenzas. There are also solo passages for oboe, double-bass, and piano (instruments that were — like the violin — played across the decades by one or more members of the Freeman family). This Romanza is a delight to the ear, sometimes evoking the bittersweet moods of Samuel Barber’s famous violin concerto (1939) and even, toward the end, a bit of late Brahms. It makes me eager to hear more of Clearfield’s music.”
- Arts Fuse, March 17, 2022, Ralph P Locke
“I can’t resist adding a few outstanding instrumental CDs that got my attention…a remarkable CD of three previously unrecorded pieces by Kevin Puts (for the same instruments that Schubert used in the “Trout” Quintet), Andrea Clearfield, and the late Gunther Schuller.”
- Classical Music Feature: “Best of 2022” — Unusual Operas Plus Some Songs, Choral, and Instrumental CDs, December 8, 2022, Ralph P Locke
“Andrea Clearfield’s Romanza for Violin and Chamber Orchestra was deliberately written to evoke some of the great 19th century romantic repertoire, inspired by an image of Florence Freeman playing the violin with her family. The work is in a single movement and played here by soloist Gloria Justen with an instrumental ensemble of 11 players. Clearfield’s style has a lyrical romanticism to it combined with a richness and complexity of harmony. The soloist’s interaction with the ensemble makes it feel like large scale chamber music rather than a 19th century concert, with some wonderfully rhapsodic moments. The work is in a sequence of sections, each varying the emotional temperature and with some cadenza moments for the soloist (including a duet with the ensemble’s double bass in a nod to Henry and Florence Freeman’s instruments).” – Robert Hugill in Planet Hugill, October 28, 2020
LISTEN
PROGRAM NOTES
Romanza (2007) was commissioned by Orchestra 2001, James Freeman, Artistic Director, in commemoration of his mother Florence Knope Freeman (1908-2002), with additional funding provided by Florence Freeman’s family, the National Endowment for the Arts, Jonathan Hodgson in Memory of Celia Hodgson (1912-2004) and the The Pew Charitable Trusts.
Florence Knope Freeman was an accomplished violinist. It was difficult for a woman to win a job with an orchestra at that time and so Florence primarily played chamber music. The process for writing this piece began with viewing photographs of Florence and her family, listening to recordings of her playing and obtaining a list of pieces that she loved. One photo in particular captured my imagination – of Florence playing a quartet with her family in the living room. I decided to write a concerto that would pay tribute to some of the great Romantic 19th Century chamber music repertoire.
The work is essentially about melody and memory. It begins with an introduction that builds to a lyrical theme, followed by a second, simpler theme featuring double stops in sixths. Syncopated material is introduced and the themes are developed, giving way to a section of propulsive rhythms and fragments of romantic musical gestures. Two cadenzas frame the central portion of the work; the solo violin plays a duet with the bass and is later joined by the oboe and piano, a musical reminiscence of the photograph of Florence performing with her husband (bass) and two sons (oboe and piano). Following the second cadenza is a recapitulation of the main themes in variation. A long coda ensues wherein previous material and thematic references from the past emerge and dissolve into a veiled tableau.
I am grateful to James Freeman for the honor of writing this work, to violinist Gloria Justen for her beautiful playing, the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts where the work was sketched, The Kimmel Harding Nelson Center for the Arts where the violin/piano reduction was created and Yaddo where the orchestration was completed.