Official site of composer Andrea Clearfield. Biography, list of works with audio, score samples, reviews and program notes, photographs, upcoming performances.
Scored for: tenor and baritone soloists, men’s chorus (TTBB) and piano Text: Robert Espindola Language: English Duration: 5 min. Premiere: May 3, 2009, Meyerson Symphony Center, Dallas, TX Commissioned by: The Turtle Creek Chorale, Jonathan Palante, Artistic Director Published by: North Star Music in Modern Music for New Singers: 21st Century American Art Songs
Contact Andrea Clearfield for score and parts:
“Andrea Clearfield has an uncanny way of capturing the very deepest essence of the texts she sets. OUR BETTER ANGELS is a wonderful example of pairing intense, rich poetry with passionate, fiery music. Singers attach themselves to the words and melodies quickly, and are able to provide nuance early on in the preparation. The complex rhythmic intensity in the orchestration helped make our performances thrilling for singer and audience member alike.”
- Jonathan Palant, Artistic Director, Turtle Creek Chorale
LISTEN
PROGRAM NOTES
Composer Andrea Clearfield collaborated with poet Robert Espindola to produce Our Better Angels. Work began more than a year ago and Ds. Clearfield and Rev. Espindola both established dialogue with Dr. Palant and with the chorus as a whole while developing the themes for this work. We are grateful for the generous support from the Morton H. Meyerson Tzedakah Fund which has made the commissioning and the premiere of this work possible.
Our Better Angels is a song cycle constructed of six movements, bracketed by a prologue and an epilogue. Each movement evokes the experience of different communities within the diverse society of the United States of America. A plea for acceptance of LGBT people is voiced in Movement V, Simply Love Them. The epilogue, Redemption, concludes with a call upon “our better angels,” and the healing that comes with acceptance.
–Jonathan Palante, artistic director
TEXT
Simply Love Them
by Robert Espindola
Far from me
he has journeyed,
a lifetime now it seems.
His hopes and dreams not of my choosing. . .
against all I believed.
I chose to close the door behind us
refusing my child’s plea to
. . .simply love him.
. . .simply love him
Far from me
she has journeyed,
I cannot count the years.
Only tears now trace the distance
and the moments that disappeared. . .
since she was here, filled with fear. . .
wounded and waiting for me to
. . .simply love her.
. . .simply love her,
Far from us
no son should journey
no daughter slip away–
ashamed of who they choose to love
or how their hearts are made.
Unafraid. . .what the world may say
let us bring all children home–and
. . .simply love them
. . .simply love them
Far from you,
they need not journey,
into some distant night.
Simply Love Them
Scored for: tenor and baritone soloists, men’s chorus (TTBB) and piano
Text: Robert Espindola
Language: English
Duration: 5 min.
Premiere: May 3, 2009, Meyerson Symphony Center, Dallas, TX
Commissioned by: The Turtle Creek Chorale, Jonathan Palante, Artistic Director
Published by: North Star Music in Modern Music for New Singers: 21st Century American Art Songs
Contact Andrea Clearfield for score and parts:
See preview score pages: SIMPLY LOVE THEM SCORE EXCERPT (PDF)
QUOTE
“Andrea Clearfield has an uncanny way of capturing the very deepest essence of the texts she sets. OUR BETTER ANGELS is a wonderful example of pairing intense, rich poetry with passionate, fiery music. Singers attach themselves to the words and melodies quickly, and are able to provide nuance early on in the preparation. The complex rhythmic intensity in the orchestration helped make our performances thrilling for singer and audience member alike.”
- Jonathan Palant, Artistic Director, Turtle Creek Chorale
LISTEN
PROGRAM NOTES
Composer Andrea Clearfield collaborated with poet Robert Espindola to produce Our Better Angels. Work began more than a year ago and Ds. Clearfield and Rev. Espindola both established dialogue with Dr. Palant and with the chorus as a whole while developing the themes for this work. We are grateful for the generous support from the Morton H. Meyerson Tzedakah Fund which has made the commissioning and the premiere of this work possible.
Our Better Angels is a song cycle constructed of six movements, bracketed by a prologue and an epilogue. Each movement evokes the experience of different communities within the diverse society of the United States of America. A plea for acceptance of LGBT people is voiced in Movement V, Simply Love Them. The epilogue, Redemption, concludes with a call upon “our better angels,” and the healing that comes with acceptance.
–Jonathan Palante, artistic director
TEXT
Simply Love Them
by Robert Espindola
Far from me
he has journeyed,
a lifetime now it seems.
His hopes and dreams not of my choosing. . .
against all I believed.
I chose to close the door behind us
refusing my child’s plea to
. . .simply love him.
. . .simply love him
Far from me
she has journeyed,
I cannot count the years.
Only tears now trace the distance
and the moments that disappeared. . .
since she was here, filled with fear. . .
wounded and waiting for me to
. . .simply love her.
. . .simply love her,
Far from us
no son should journey
no daughter slip away–
ashamed of who they choose to love
or how their hearts are made.
Unafraid. . .what the world may say
let us bring all children home–and
. . .simply love them
. . .simply love them
Far from you,
they need not journey,
into some distant night.
. . .simply love them.