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| 2015/04/05 10:04:38瀏覽169｜回應0｜推薦6 | |
Sowash: 'The View from Carew' for clarinet, cello and piano / orchestra
Hello --
Here's how these things happen.
Back in 2000, the conductor of the Cincinnati Community Orchestra asked the orchestra's principal clarinetist, my friend Angelo Santoro, to choose a clarinet-and-orchestra work he'd like to perform.
Instead of choosing an existing piece, Angelo asked me to write a new work. He asked that the piece be "very melodic, very romantic, even operatic."
The result was my Romance for Clarinet and Orchestra: "The View from Carew." The title refers to the view atop Carew Tower, then still the tallest building in Cincinnati.
The view is splendid but not particularly romantic. So I conceived a wistful scene taking place on the viewing deck. The clarinet represents a lonely figure grieving the recent end of a deeply-felt love affair, looking out over the city, remembering occasions passed with the beloved in the many places around the city that can be seen from that vantage point. I tried to make the music express the sublimity that we feel when we view the world from a high place, mingled with feelings of yearning and loss.
The piece begins with a slow syncopated figure; this figure frames the work, recurring at the end with the clarinet tenderly hovering. Then two romantic themes are presented -- an ascending "love theme" (the clarinet enters with this theme) and a descending "loss theme." Thus, opposites are established, developed and, by the end of the piece, reconciled.
Angelo premiered the piece, playing beautifully as always, a noble presence with his silver mustache and black tuxedo.
After the premiere, Angelo insisted that the Romance was destined to be the slow, middle movement of a three-movement concerto for clarinet and orchestra. He kept after me, phoning me from time to time to ask how the concerto was coming along. Finally, in 2007, I wrote the two outer movements, rendering at last a full-length concerto for my favorite instrument.
I later re-scored The View from Carew for clarinet, cello and piano and, in that version, it has become one of my most frequently performed chamber works.
To hear The View from Carew beautifully performed by Baltimore clarinetist David Drosinos and the St. Petersburg Symphony under the direction of Vladimir Landes, click here:
To see a PDF of the full orchestral score, click here:
To see a PDF of the score in the reduction for clarinet, cello and piano, click here:
I'd love to know what you think about this music; feel free to reply if you're inclined. But please don't feel that you are expected to reply. I'm just glad to share my work in this way.
As always, feel free to forward this message to friends who might enjoy it. Maybe you have a clarinetist friend who likes to discover new music?
Anyone can be on my little list of recipients for these mpFrees (as I call these musical emails). To sign up, people can email me at rick@sowash.com, sending just one word: "Yes." I'll know what it means.
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