Official site of composer Andrea Clearfield. Biography, list of works with audio, score samples, reviews and program notes, photographs, upcoming performances.
Scored for: SSA Chorus, 2 percussion and piano Text: Sienna Craig Duration: 16 min. 3 movements (I. Body, II. Speech, III. Heart/Mind). Movements may be performed individually Premiere: February, 2019, National Treble Choir at Carnegie Hall, Sandra Snow, conductor Commissioned by: National Concerts, Matthew Workman, director, Sandra Snow, Meredith Bowen and a consortium of treble choirs Published by: Angelfire Press. Distributed by Trudy Chan at Black Tea Music.
For questions, contact Andrea Clearfield:
Home in Me is a three movement work for treble chorus, percussion and piano on the theme of “what is home”. The piece is commissioned by a consortium of treble choirs with support from National Concerts. Its three movements will be
premiered at Carnegie Hall each year from 2020 – 2022. Home in Me (I. Body) was given its World Premiere at Carnegie Hall in
YC on February 16, 2020 by a consortium of treble choirs under the direction of Dr. Sandra Snow. The concert was presented
and sponsored by National Concerts, Matthew Workman, director.
Home in Me is inspired by beautiful, poignant poetry by Dr. Sienna Craig that she created specifically for this piece.
The three parts explore “what is home” in body/place, speech and heart/mind respectively. In 2008, Sienna and Andrea trekked
to a remote region of the Nepalese Himalaya where Andrea researched and helped document Tibetan folk music. The experience
led to an interest in migration, diaspora and questions about the nature of home. The first movement, “Body”, invites the
choir to both sing and play stones that they gather from places that they call home. The work moves through different musical
spaces, harmonies and textures. It is essentially about cultivating home within ourselves. The second movement, “Speech” is
about struggling to communicate and understand and breaking through that struggle. The third movement, “Heart-Mind” addresses
our humanness, how both heart and mind must go hand in hand. Our heart-minds, although changeable, carry moments of continuity,
connection, and aliveness and one can perceive “waves of knowing, deeply felt”. The piece also offers the perspective that we are
more than just individual beings, and points to the larger world space contained in us, and our humble place in the universe.
Participating choirs are:
Radford University Singers, Dr. Meredith Bowen, director
mirabai and Mosaic Ensemble, Dr. Sandra Snow, director
Texas Tech University Women’s Chorale, Dr. Carolyn Cruse, director
Rutgers Voorhees Choir, Dr. Brandon Williams, director
The Women’s Chorus of Dallas, Melinda Imthurn, director
VOX Femina Los Angeles, Dr. Iris S. Levine, director
Aurelia, Dr. Stuart Chapman Hill, director
Advanced Treble Ensemble, Dr. Nana Wolfe-Hill, director
Georgia State University Women’s Chorus, Dr. Jennifer Sengin, director
Voices Rising – Boston, Leora Zimmer, director
eVoco Voice Collective Treble Ensemble, Dr. David Fryling, director
MSU Community Music School Children & Youth Choirs, Alison Geesey-Lagan, director
Carling Fitzsimmons, La Caccina
Home in Me is supported in part by a Diverse Voices Collaborative Grant from The American Choral Directors Association (ACDA).
The composer wishes to thank MacDowell (Peterborough, NH), Bloedel Reserve (Bainbridge Island, WA), The Helene Wurlitzer
Foundation of New Mexico, Visby International Centre for Composers (Gotland, Sweden), The Copland House (Cortlandt, NY) and the
Ragdale Foundation (Lake Forest, IL) for providing invaluable time and space to compose this trilogy, and special thanks to conductor
Meredith Bowen for conceiving of and organizing this project.
TEXT
HOME IN ME
Poetry by Sienna Craig
I. Body
When our bodies turn this wheel
Crack the vessel, learn what’s real
Leave an echo of the self
Moment to moment we touch, we dwell, (but still…)
When we yearn to feel awake
Creature of our boundless ache
Limb by limb we make the climb
Begin, begun this dance of time
Stones in our pockets
Wind in our hair
Wondering, wandering, welcomed, where?
When our bodies feel this burn
How do we reclaim, return?
Leave an imprint on the skin
Moment to moment, we touch, we shed….begin
How do we begin to belong?
A future seeded in the past
This inner landscape, calm at last
We live the earth we cultivate
How does history resonate?
When our bodies turn this wheel
Crack the vessel, learn what’s real
Leave an echo of the self
Moment to moment, we touch, we feel, we molt, reveal, we shed, begin, again…
How do we begin to belong? How do we begin? Where do we begin? When do we begin?
Feel the pull of home (hands)
Hear the call of home (head)
Hold the still…of home (heart)
II. Speech
What do we carry in our throat?
Where lives rage? Release the note
Crick and crack of brittle bones
Feel the anger, toss the stones
Climb the ladder, raise the roof
Sound the sirens, shout the truth
Strip the bark and burn the tree
Drink the air, roar to be free
Filled to bursting like a dam
Swing wide the doors, hear who I am
When our voices cannot sing
Hold the sound of everything
***
What do we carry in our throat?
Song, ache, place
What do we carry in our heart?
Wound, care, love
Grief, joy, loss
Breathe, breathe. This too is song.
***
What do we carry in our throat?
Release, release, release the note
Stone by stone turn over words
Breathe in stories seldom heard
The gloaming is a rush of blood
Across the sky – thrill to the flood
Will, will yourself to speak
Move toward the world you seek
Will, will yourself to sing
Still, if you are suffering
Reckon, reckon, reckoning
Release the sound of everything
III. Heart-Mind
When the ground beneath our feet
Shifts and turns then finds retreat
Mind can be a churning sea
A rocky shore, the death of me
In these moments of despair
Recall your heart, those depths of care
Shed the skin and root the tree
Swing wide the doors of memory
What moves us all?
The hurt we see
The ache we know
The taste of love
And echoes of the heart
And echoes of the heart
Heart and mind hold resonance
Those multitudes we invent
Abide the currents of the self
Waves of knowing deeply felt
Like time and sky, these feelings rest
In the center of the chest
Imagine what mountains see
Remember, remember the world in me
Lift the weight of all we are
Swing wide horizons near and far
We birth, we cry, we find empathy
Recall, recall the home in me
Shed the bark and root the tree
Remember, remember the world in me
What holds us all?
The color blue
The cast of moon
The sear of sun
And nothing less than stars
And nothing less than stars
Home in Me
Scored for: SSA Chorus, 2 percussion and piano
Text: Sienna Craig
Duration: 16 min. 3 movements (I. Body, II. Speech, III. Heart/Mind). Movements may be performed individually
Premiere: February, 2019, National Treble Choir at Carnegie Hall, Sandra Snow, conductor
Commissioned by: National Concerts, Matthew Workman, director, Sandra Snow, Meredith Bowen and a consortium of treble choirs
Published by: Angelfire Press. Distributed by Trudy Chan at Black Tea Music.
For questions, contact Andrea Clearfield:
See preview score pages:
Home in Me Speech perusal pages – Score
WATCH
Interview with Andrea
NOTES
Home in Me is a three movement work for treble chorus, percussion and piano on the theme of “what is home”. The piece is commissioned by a consortium of treble choirs with support from National Concerts. Its three movements will be
premiered at Carnegie Hall each year from 2020 – 2022. Home in Me (I. Body) was given its World Premiere at Carnegie Hall in
YC on February 16, 2020 by a consortium of treble choirs under the direction of Dr. Sandra Snow. The concert was presented
and sponsored by National Concerts, Matthew Workman, director.
Home in Me is inspired by beautiful, poignant poetry by Dr. Sienna Craig that she created specifically for this piece.
The three parts explore “what is home” in body/place, speech and heart/mind respectively. In 2008, Sienna and Andrea trekked
to a remote region of the Nepalese Himalaya where Andrea researched and helped document Tibetan folk music. The experience
led to an interest in migration, diaspora and questions about the nature of home. The first movement, “Body”, invites the
choir to both sing and play stones that they gather from places that they call home. The work moves through different musical
spaces, harmonies and textures. It is essentially about cultivating home within ourselves. The second movement, “Speech” is
about struggling to communicate and understand and breaking through that struggle. The third movement, “Heart-Mind” addresses
our humanness, how both heart and mind must go hand in hand. Our heart-minds, although changeable, carry moments of continuity,
connection, and aliveness and one can perceive “waves of knowing, deeply felt”. The piece also offers the perspective that we are
more than just individual beings, and points to the larger world space contained in us, and our humble place in the universe.
Participating choirs are:
Radford University Singers, Dr. Meredith Bowen, director
mirabai and Mosaic Ensemble, Dr. Sandra Snow, director
Texas Tech University Women’s Chorale, Dr. Carolyn Cruse, director
Rutgers Voorhees Choir, Dr. Brandon Williams, director
The Women’s Chorus of Dallas, Melinda Imthurn, director
VOX Femina Los Angeles, Dr. Iris S. Levine, director
Aurelia, Dr. Stuart Chapman Hill, director
Advanced Treble Ensemble, Dr. Nana Wolfe-Hill, director
Georgia State University Women’s Chorus, Dr. Jennifer Sengin, director
Voices Rising – Boston, Leora Zimmer, director
eVoco Voice Collective Treble Ensemble, Dr. David Fryling, director
MSU Community Music School Children & Youth Choirs, Alison Geesey-Lagan, director
Carling Fitzsimmons, La Caccina
Home in Me is supported in part by a Diverse Voices Collaborative Grant from The American Choral Directors Association (ACDA).
The composer wishes to thank MacDowell (Peterborough, NH), Bloedel Reserve (Bainbridge Island, WA), The Helene Wurlitzer
Foundation of New Mexico, Visby International Centre for Composers (Gotland, Sweden), The Copland House (Cortlandt, NY) and the
Ragdale Foundation (Lake Forest, IL) for providing invaluable time and space to compose this trilogy, and special thanks to conductor
Meredith Bowen for conceiving of and organizing this project.
TEXT
HOME IN ME
Poetry by Sienna Craig
I. Body
When our bodies turn this wheel
Crack the vessel, learn what’s real
Leave an echo of the self
Moment to moment we touch, we dwell, (but still…)
When we yearn to feel awake
Creature of our boundless ache
Limb by limb we make the climb
Begin, begun this dance of time
Stones in our pockets
Wind in our hair
Wondering, wandering, welcomed, where?
When our bodies feel this burn
How do we reclaim, return?
Leave an imprint on the skin
Moment to moment, we touch, we shed….begin
How do we begin to belong?
A future seeded in the past
This inner landscape, calm at last
We live the earth we cultivate
How does history resonate?
When our bodies turn this wheel
Crack the vessel, learn what’s real
Leave an echo of the self
Moment to moment, we touch, we feel, we molt, reveal, we shed, begin, again…
How do we begin to belong? How do we begin? Where do we begin? When do we begin?
Feel the pull of home (hands)
Hear the call of home (head)
Hold the still…of home (heart)
II. Speech
What do we carry in our throat?
Where lives rage? Release the note
Crick and crack of brittle bones
Feel the anger, toss the stones
Climb the ladder, raise the roof
Sound the sirens, shout the truth
Strip the bark and burn the tree
Drink the air, roar to be free
Filled to bursting like a dam
Swing wide the doors, hear who I am
When our voices cannot sing
Hold the sound of everything
***
What do we carry in our throat?
Song, ache, place
What do we carry in our heart?
Wound, care, love
Grief, joy, loss
Breathe, breathe. This too is song.
***
What do we carry in our throat?
Release, release, release the note
Stone by stone turn over words
Breathe in stories seldom heard
The gloaming is a rush of blood
Across the sky – thrill to the flood
Will, will yourself to speak
Move toward the world you seek
Will, will yourself to sing
Still, if you are suffering
Reckon, reckon, reckoning
Release the sound of everything
III. Heart-Mind
When the ground beneath our feet
Shifts and turns then finds retreat
Mind can be a churning sea
A rocky shore, the death of me
In these moments of despair
Recall your heart, those depths of care
Shed the skin and root the tree
Swing wide the doors of memory
What moves us all?
The hurt we see
The ache we know
The taste of love
And echoes of the heart
And echoes of the heart
Heart and mind hold resonance
Those multitudes we invent
Abide the currents of the self
Waves of knowing deeply felt
Like time and sky, these feelings rest
In the center of the chest
Imagine what mountains see
Remember, remember the world in me
Lift the weight of all we are
Swing wide horizons near and far
We birth, we cry, we find empathy
Recall, recall the home in me
Shed the bark and root the tree
Remember, remember the world in me
What holds us all?
The color blue
The cast of moon
The sear of sun
And nothing less than stars
And nothing less than stars