Official site of composer Andrea Clearfield. Biography, list of works with audio, score samples, reviews and program notes, photographs, upcoming performances.
Instrumentation: Soprano, Flute, Oboe, Clarinet, Bass Clarinet, Harp, Piano, Percussion (3), Violins (2), Viola, Cello, Double Bass, Digital Audio Text: Excerpts from a traditional gar-glu Tibetan song from Lo Monthang, Nepal recorded by Andrea Clearfield and Katey Blumenthal Language: Mustang dialect of Tibetan Duration: 13 min. Premiere: April 21, 2016, The University of Arkansas New Music Ensemble, Moon-Sook Park, soprano, Jamal Duncan, conductor Commissioned by: The University of Arkansas New Music Ensemble Published by: Self-published, Angelfire Press See score: CLEARFIELD_Andrea_Rabsong Shar_Full Score Rabsong Shar Score Excerpt
Contact Andrea Clearfield for score and parts:
Rabsong Shar premiere
QUOTES
“RABSONG SHAR, an extended setting of a Tibetan folk melody for soprano, chamber orchestra and electronics, is a stunningly evocative work.”
–Dan Welcher, Director, University of Texas at Austin New Music Ensemble
“The University of Arkansas McIlroy Professorship Endowment wished to commission a piece for the Arkansas New Music Ensemble. We approached Andrea to compose a piece for our new music ensemble. The resulting piece was a work that more than exceeded our expectations. Rabsong Shar is a piece of exquisite beauty, wistful melancholy, and deep reverence to an ancient culture. My students and I were elated to bring Andrea’s beautiful gift to life. The piece is a masterwork of orchestration and timbral color. Audiences everywhere will be engaged by this piece.”
–Jamal Duncan, Music Director, Arkansas New Music Ensemble
Rabsong Shar (2016, rev. 2017) is inspired by my experience recording Tibetan music in the restricted, remote Himalayan region of Lo Monthang in Upper Mustang, Nepal, near the Tibetan border. This is the latest in a new body of creative work in response to the fieldwork. On my first trek in 2008 with artist Maureen Drdak, working on a commission for Network for New Music, I met Tashi Tsering, the last remaining royal court singer of Lo Monthang. His music had not been documented and he had no heirs to learn his music. If he passed, these songs taught from father to son for hundreds of years, telling the history of the people, would be lost. I returned to Lo Monthang in 2010 to record Tashi Tsering with anthropologist and ethnomusicologist, Katey Blumenthal.
The people of Upper Mustang are ethnically Tibetan; the region is one of the only enclaves of traditional Tibetan culture in the world. Much is in flux and this ancient horse culture is endangered. Efforts are being made to preserve their music, dance, medicine, religion, language and art. Under the auspices of the Rubin Foundation, Katey and I recorded over 130 songs. These included the complete repertoire of gar-glu (court offering songs) of Tashi Tsering. Gar-glu repertoire was performed by members of the Emeda caste, low in the caste system. There was originally an ensemble of eight musicians performing gar-glu. Traditional ways are being replaced with more modernity, including the feudal and caste system. Tashi Tsering no longer sings in his traditional role; the era of gar-glu singing has ended.
Our recordings were placed in the Cultural Library in Lo Monthang and are part of the University of Cambridge World Oral Literature Project: “an urgent global initiative to document and make accessible endangered oral literatures before they disappear without record.” In NYC the songs are taught to Mustangi children as part of a Himalayan language and culture preservation initiative.
When I was invited as McIlroy Composer in Residence at the University of Arkansas in 2016, I was commissioned to write a piece for their New Music Ensemble on the theme of “music as story”. I chose to write a work inspired by the song “Rabsong Shar” (The Eastern Room of the Palace), a favorite of the King of Lo Monthang. Jigme Dorje Palbar Bista, the last king in a lineage dating from 1380, passed in 2016. I was honored to meet him. “Rabsong Shar” is about a room in the palace where the King and Queen live that has a door on the east side. Inside the room, the King wears a golden hat and the Queen wears torquoise and coral beads. Tashi Tsering would play this song to welcome the King and Queen.
I recorded Tashi Tsering singing this song. He accompanied himself with a pair of skin drums called nha (like small conga drums). Fragments of the traditional Loba words, melody and rhythms from the first stanza of the song are incorporated into this work, framed in my contemporary music language. There are elements informed by vocal ornaments particular to Tashi Tsering’s singing style. There are also percussive elements based on Tashi Tsering’s drum rhythms.
The work deals with memory, loss and change. It is also a celebration of song as a way to convey the story of a people and to honor, respect and preserve a culture and its language.
The work was premiered at the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville on April 21, 2016 by the New Music Ensemble directed by Jamal Duncon. The soprano soloist was Moon-Sook Park. I revised the work in 2017 for soprano solo, flute, oboe, clarinet, bass clarinet harp, piano, 3 percussion (playing western and Tibetan instruments), 2 violins, viola, cello, double bass and electronics created from my original field recordings of “Rabsong Shar”. The premiere of the revised version took place on April 28, 2017 at the University of Texas at Austin by the UT New Music Ensemble, Dan Welcher, conductor. The soprano soloist is Suzanne Lis.
With gratitude to Alex Shapiro and Carol Moore, whose studios provided time and space within which to create this work.
Rabsong Shar (The Eastern Room of the Palace)
Upper Mustang, Nepal
Instrumentation: Soprano, Flute, Oboe, Clarinet, Bass Clarinet, Harp, Piano, Percussion (3), Violins (2), Viola, Cello, Double Bass, Digital Audio
Text: Excerpts from a traditional gar-glu Tibetan song from Lo Monthang, Nepal recorded by Andrea Clearfield and Katey Blumenthal
Language: Mustang dialect of Tibetan
Duration: 13 min.
Premiere: April 21, 2016, The University of Arkansas New Music Ensemble, Moon-Sook Park, soprano, Jamal Duncan, conductor
Commissioned by: The University of Arkansas New Music Ensemble
Published by: Self-published, Angelfire Press
See score:
CLEARFIELD_Andrea_Rabsong Shar_Full Score
Rabsong Shar Score Excerpt
Contact Andrea Clearfield for score and parts:
Rabsong Shar premiere
QUOTES
“RABSONG SHAR, an extended setting of a Tibetan folk melody for soprano, chamber orchestra and electronics, is a stunningly evocative work.”
–Dan Welcher, Director, University of Texas at Austin New Music Ensemble
“The University of Arkansas McIlroy Professorship Endowment wished to commission a piece for the Arkansas New Music Ensemble. We approached Andrea to compose a piece for our new music ensemble. The resulting piece was a work that more than exceeded our expectations. Rabsong Shar is a piece of exquisite beauty, wistful melancholy, and deep reverence to an ancient culture. My students and I were elated to bring Andrea’s beautiful gift to life. The piece is a masterwork of orchestration and timbral color. Audiences everywhere will be engaged by this piece.”
–Jamal Duncan, Music Director, Arkansas New Music Ensemble
READ
Arkansas New Music Ensemble to Perform World Premiere by Andrea Clearfield
LISTEN
5 minute excerpt
7 minute excerpt
entire work minus the introduction
From the Himalayas to the Ozarks: A World Premiere Composition’s Journey
WATCH
Rabsong Shar Premiere
COMPOSER’S NOTES
Rabsong Shar (2016, rev. 2017) is inspired by my experience recording Tibetan music in the restricted, remote Himalayan region of Lo Monthang in Upper Mustang, Nepal, near the Tibetan border. This is the latest in a new body of creative work in response to the fieldwork. On my first trek in 2008 with artist Maureen Drdak, working on a commission for Network for New Music, I met Tashi Tsering, the last remaining royal court singer of Lo Monthang. His music had not been documented and he had no heirs to learn his music. If he passed, these songs taught from father to son for hundreds of years, telling the history of the people, would be lost. I returned to Lo Monthang in 2010 to record Tashi Tsering with anthropologist and ethnomusicologist, Katey Blumenthal.
The people of Upper Mustang are ethnically Tibetan; the region is one of the only enclaves of traditional Tibetan culture in the world. Much is in flux and this ancient horse culture is endangered. Efforts are being made to preserve their music, dance, medicine, religion, language and art. Under the auspices of the Rubin Foundation, Katey and I recorded over 130 songs. These included the complete repertoire of gar-glu (court offering songs) of Tashi Tsering. Gar-glu repertoire was performed by members of the Emeda caste, low in the caste system. There was originally an ensemble of eight musicians performing gar-glu. Traditional ways are being replaced with more modernity, including the feudal and caste system. Tashi Tsering no longer sings in his traditional role; the era of gar-glu singing has ended.
Our recordings were placed in the Cultural Library in Lo Monthang and are part of the University of Cambridge World Oral Literature Project: “an urgent global initiative to document and make accessible endangered oral literatures before they disappear without record.” In NYC the songs are taught to Mustangi children as part of a Himalayan language and culture preservation initiative.
When I was invited as McIlroy Composer in Residence at the University of Arkansas in 2016, I was commissioned to write a piece for their New Music Ensemble on the theme of “music as story”. I chose to write a work inspired by the song “Rabsong Shar” (The Eastern Room of the Palace), a favorite of the King of Lo Monthang. Jigme Dorje Palbar Bista, the last king in a lineage dating from 1380, passed in 2016. I was honored to meet him. “Rabsong Shar” is about a room in the palace where the King and Queen live that has a door on the east side. Inside the room, the King wears a golden hat and the Queen wears torquoise and coral beads. Tashi Tsering would play this song to welcome the King and Queen.
I recorded Tashi Tsering singing this song. He accompanied himself with a pair of skin drums called nha (like small conga drums). Fragments of the traditional Loba words, melody and rhythms from the first stanza of the song are incorporated into this work, framed in my contemporary music language. There are elements informed by vocal ornaments particular to Tashi Tsering’s singing style. There are also percussive elements based on Tashi Tsering’s drum rhythms.
The work deals with memory, loss and change. It is also a celebration of song as a way to convey the story of a people and to honor, respect and preserve a culture and its language.
The work was premiered at the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville on April 21, 2016 by the New Music Ensemble directed by Jamal Duncon. The soprano soloist was Moon-Sook Park. I revised the work in 2017 for soprano solo, flute, oboe, clarinet, bass clarinet harp, piano, 3 percussion (playing western and Tibetan instruments), 2 violins, viola, cello, double bass and electronics created from my original field recordings of “Rabsong Shar”. The premiere of the revised version took place on April 28, 2017 at the University of Texas at Austin by the UT New Music Ensemble, Dan Welcher, conductor. The soprano soloist is Suzanne Lis.
With gratitude to Alex Shapiro and Carol Moore, whose studios provided time and space within which to create this work.
INTERVIEW