Clarinet in Bb, violin, cello, piano
Live Recording - 5.08.98
SOLI Chamber Ensemble

Crows is dedicated to the SOLI Chamber Ensemble. Inspired by the writings of poet Joy Harjo, each movement is based upon a short excerpt that describes some aspect of life in the desert southwest. These excerpts serve as a starting point for the creation of five musical landscapes:

red earth
My house is the red earth; it could be the center of the world. I’ve heard New York, Paris or Tokyo called the center of the world, but I say it is magnificently humble. You could drive by and miss it. Radio waves can obscure it. Words cannot construct it, for there are some sounds left to sacred wordless form…

clusters
We fly into the body and we fly out, changed by the sun, by crows who manipulate the borders of reason…

silver breaths
I see the flash of silver breaths on the wing of the sky, and hear the explosion of a thousand horses running…

invocation
I think of the lush stillness of the end of a world, sung into place by singers and the rattle of turtles in the dark morning…

drying stone
Invisible fish swim this ghost ocean now described by waves of sound, by water-worn rock. Soon the fish will learn to walk. Then humans will come ashore and paint dreams on the drying stone. Then later, much later, the ocean floor will be punctuated by Chevy trucks, carrying the dreamers' descendants, who are going to the store.

Poetry by Joy Harjo, from Secrets from the Center of the World (Tucson: The University of Arizona Press, 1989) and The Woman Who Fell from the Sky (New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 1994).

In Native American tradition, the crow represents the gateway to the supernatural, possessing the ability to see simultaneously past, present and future. While writing this piece I often wondered how these birds (which appear often in Harjo's poetry) might experience the journey through these musical expanses from their special perspective. 

For additional information, visit: https://www.alexandragardner.net/works/crows/

Crows - 4. invocation

*Many more soundfiles are located at www.ClareShore.com
Clare Shore, the second woman to earn the Doctor of Musical Arts degree in Composition from The Juilliard  School, has received critical acclaim for her works, with reviewers from the New York Times, New York Post, Boston Globe, Washington Post and others hailing her works as "provocative" … "immensely  dramatic" … ""unpretentious" … "ingenious and evocative" … "intriguing" … "romantic to the core". While at  Juilliard Ms. Shore studied with David Diamond, Vincent Persichetti and Roger Sessions, and subsequently with Gunther Schuller. Since then, she has received numerous commissions, awards, and grants, including a  Composer Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts.
Shore has served on the faculties of Fordham University, Manhattan School of Music, the University of Virginia, George Mason University, and Palm Beach Atlantic University. She currently holds an exclusive publishing contract with E.C. Schirmer. Her works are recorded on CRS, Owl Recordings, and Opus One, produced by Grammy Award-winning Elite Recordings.

Composer & Sound Artist
Find out more at https://alexandragardner.net/

composer-pianist/visual artist based in brooklyn; over 150 works in all media. visit www.jonathanelliott.net for news, audio samples, and more! thanks for visiting.

Crows - 4. invocation

Alexandra Gardner