Sowash: “Curly Prays:  Homage to Richard Rodgers” for clarinet and piano

Hello —

My friend Chris Miller is an extraordinary musician and a wonderful guy.  He directs several choirs, including the Mt. Auburn Presbyterian Church choir in which I am proud to sing.  He is also a fine baritone, pianist, guitarist and trumpet player.  In 2007, he asked me to write something “American-sounding” for trumpet and piano that he could play as an offertory.

What is more American-sounding than Richard Rodgers’ score for “Oklahoma!”?  The show opens with Curly the cowboy singing “Oh, What a Beautiful Mornin’.”  I decided to meet Chris’ request by paying homage to Richard Rodgers and to that song in particular.

My piece begins and ends with Curly doing his cowboy thing.  I picture him strutting along, thumbs in his belt, cowboy hat tilted back on his head, whistling at the girls and smiling broadly.  But Curly has a reverential side, too.  Night falls and the music calms down.  Gazing up in wonder and gratitude at the stars above the prairie, Curly is moved to pray a prayer of Thanksgiving.  You’ll hear it.  And when the prayer is concluded, you’ll hear Curly  dust himself off and resume his strut and head into town, looking for fun.

In the score, I ask the trumpeter to wear a cowboy hat for the opening and final sections of the piece, but to remove it for the prayerful middle section.

Listen carefully and you’ll hear “Oh, What a Beautiful Mornin’” peeking around the corners as the trumpet and piano weave fragments of the famous tune into the texture of the piece.  The entire opening phrase of the song is only heard once, at the very end.

If you didn’t know in advance that the tune was being quoted, I think you’d probably sense that there was something familiar about what you were hearing, but find yourself unable to identify it until the very end.  Then you’d say, “Ah-HAH!  So THAT’s why I thought I recognized something!"

The piece has never been recorded in its original trumpet/piano version.  In fact, hardly anyone has ever heard this music.  Chris played it in church once or twice but through the miracle of technology, today’s email miraculously, serves it up for the first time to you and many other friends and fans.

What times we live in, when such miracles are possible for people of modest means, like me.  When I think of this, I feel prompted, like Curly, to pray prayers of Thanksgiving.  Thirty years ago, the only way I could have shared this music with you would have been to produce an LP and mail it to you.  The cost would have been enormous and prohibitive.  Now, it’s almost free and requires little more than the energy it takes to press a few keys on my computer.

You will hear clarinetist Laurel Bennett and collaborative pianist Carol Alexander playing “Curly Prays:  Homage to Richard Rodgers,” by clicking here:
http://www.sowash.com/recordings/mp3/curly_prays.mp3

To see a PDF of the score, click here:
http://www.sowash.com/recordings/mp3/curly_prays.pdf

If you’re a clarinetist and would like to have the clarinet part for this piece just let me know and I’ll send you a free PDF of it.  You can print it out, play it, give to students, whatever.   My gift.

I'd love to know what you think about this music; 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.

Anyone can be on my little list of recipients for these mpFrees (as I call these musical emails).  To sign up, people should email me at rick@sowash.com, sending just one word:  "Yes."   I'll know what it means.   To unsubscribe, reply “unsubscribe.”