Official site of composer Andrea Clearfield. Biography, list of works with audio, score samples, reviews and program notes, photographs, upcoming performances.
Scored for: soprano and baritone solos, SATB, chamber orchestra Text: Maya Angelou Language: English Duration: 30 min. Premiere: March, 1996, Voces Novae et Antiquae, directed by Robert Ross, Philadelphia Chamber Orchestra, Fleisher Art Memorial, Philadelphia
REVIEW
“The large crowd that jammed Fleisher Art memorial on Sunday afternoon to hear Voces Novae et Antiquae seemed to surprise even the concert’s organizers. Extra seating had to be added to accommodate everyone who came to hear the premiere of Andrea Clearfield’s On the Pulse of Morning. Set to a poem Maya Angelou wrote for President Clinton’s inauguration, On the Pulse of Morning might be thought of as a secular oratorio. Scored for chorus, orchestra, soprano, baritone and narrator, the work comes up with an appropriate musical answer to Angelou’s strength-drawing poetry. Hopeful and substantive, Clearfield layers an emotional story over Angelou’s. The composer crafts some beautiful and strong melodies and is not afraid to repeat a good phrase. Orchestrations were carefully done so that the instrumentalists never overpowered text. The orchestra was charged with many interludes and lovely instrumental solos…”
- Peter Dobrin, The Philadelphia Inquirer, March, 1996
PROGRAM NOTES
Maya Angelou’s piercing yet compassionate words on the past, present and future American experience, created for and delivered to the American people on the eve of the Inauguration of President Clinton, were an immediate inspiration. With the consent of publisher Random House, Inc., the piece was begun in the spring of 1994 and completed in the winter of 1995. The musical materials were derived from a significant underlying theme in the poem: the longing to understand (and the necessity of facing) the truth of our American past and the impact that we have on our country’s destiny. The musical sections correspond to the Rock, the River and the Tree, with folk material interwoven.
On the Pulse of Morning
Scored for: soprano and baritone solos, SATB, chamber orchestra
Text: Maya Angelou
Language: English
Duration: 30 min.
Premiere: March, 1996, Voces Novae et Antiquae, directed by Robert Ross, Philadelphia Chamber Orchestra, Fleisher Art Memorial, Philadelphia
REVIEW
“The large crowd that jammed Fleisher Art memorial on Sunday afternoon to hear Voces Novae et Antiquae seemed to surprise even the concert’s organizers. Extra seating had to be added to accommodate everyone who came to hear the premiere of Andrea Clearfield’s On the Pulse of Morning. Set to a poem Maya Angelou wrote for President Clinton’s inauguration, On the Pulse of Morning might be thought of as a secular oratorio. Scored for chorus, orchestra, soprano, baritone and narrator, the work comes up with an appropriate musical answer to Angelou’s strength-drawing poetry. Hopeful and substantive, Clearfield layers an emotional story over Angelou’s. The composer crafts some beautiful and strong melodies and is not afraid to repeat a good phrase. Orchestrations were carefully done so that the instrumentalists never overpowered text. The orchestra was charged with many interludes and lovely instrumental solos…”
- Peter Dobrin, The Philadelphia Inquirer, March, 1996
PROGRAM NOTES
Maya Angelou’s piercing yet compassionate words on the past, present and future American experience, created for and delivered to the American people on the eve of the Inauguration of President Clinton, were an immediate inspiration. With the consent of publisher Random House, Inc., the piece was begun in the spring of 1994 and completed in the winter of 1995. The musical materials were derived from a significant underlying theme in the poem: the longing to understand (and the necessity of facing) the truth of our American past and the impact that we have on our country’s destiny. The musical sections correspond to the Rock, the River and the Tree, with folk material interwoven.