“Standing at the Beam,” composed by Andrea Clearfield, with poetry by Anthony Silvestri, for chorus and string quintet was created to foster a spirit of healing among survivors and the MSU Community due to the criminal sexual misconduct of Larry Nassar, and healing and support for all who have suffered abuse. The work honors the resilience and courage of survivors.

This piece was commissioned by the Edward D. Anderson Choral Scholars Fund in Honor of The University Chorale.

Conducted by: David Rayl

Featuring Soloists: Claire Kaiser, Phoenix Miranda, Paula Duva-Rodriguez, Jacqueline Conlon, Paige Heidrich, Katy Green, Cera Babb, Maria Schoon

STANDING AT THE BEAM
Poem by Charles Anthony Silvestri
© 2019 for Andrea Clearfield

Standing at the beam
All alone
Shaken still    shaken…
broken…
Standing on the edge
Seeking balance
Shifting equilibrium   shifting…
imbalance…
Rising into my routine
Trying not to fall   falling…
Facing all those faces   fearing…
Who’ll never know   hiding…
That not to fall
Requires all
The grit, the work, the strength
Even the strength of all my scars
To get back up again

Standing at the beam
A shadow at my side   shadow…
Weighing me down   inside…
still...

This shadow is not my story
And nothing will take the glory
Of what I have accomplished

But I cannot balance alone
I must dance with the shadows
Until they fade
Until what’s real shines through…

And I see you    I see you…
Standing together   together…
We shake this shadow
And lift each other up

The light of life is ours today
The world will hear what we must say
The light of truth drives shadows away
And reveals a bright new dawn

lifting...
We stand at the beam   shifting...
In strength, together   together…
Where shadows cannot touch us.

From the concert "Standing at the Beam" Saturday, April 2, 2022 
For more information or to order scores visit:
https://www.andreaclearfield.com/works/choral/standing-at-the-beam/
To learn more about survivors of abuse and how you can help visit:
https://centerforsurvivors.msu.edu

Standing at the Beam (premiere audio)

Singing for the City
Rollo A. Dilworth, Artistic & Music Director
Sunday, October 29, 2023, 3 p.m.
Temple Performing Arts Center
Philadelphia, PA

Singing City  Fall Concert 2023.WAV

The work is inspired by the composer's fieldwork in the restricted Himalayan region of Lo Monthang, Nepal, near the border of Tibet documenting indigenous folk song, 2008-2010. The seven movement cantata was commissioned by the Mendelssohn Club and Pennsylvania Girlchoir. The work, scored for SATB and SSA choruses, digital audio and chamber orchestra, was composed in 2012 and revised in 2013. This performance from Spring, 2013 is by the University of Austin New Music Ensemble and Choirs, directed by Dan Welcher. The cantata is based on rites of passage. Texts: Dr. Sienna Craig and traditional texts from the region of Lo Monthang in Upper Mustang, Nepal, initial translations by Karma Wangyal Gurung and Katey Blumenthal; poetic translations by Sienna Craig; transliterations by Katey Blumenthal and Andrea Clearfield.  Movements I and VI are sung in English, set to poetry by Dr. Sienna Craig. 
Prologue: At the threshold (I)
I Kye (Birth)
II Shar Ki Ri (Mountain to the East)
III Kusum (Queen Kusum goes to Ladakh)
IV Tse Go La (At the threshold of this life)
V Re Chung Tso (The performers)
Interlude: At the threshold (II)
VI Shi (Death)

TSE GO LA (At The Threshold Of This Life) - 30 minute cantata

Music written by Andrea Clearfield
Text excerpted from "Song of Myself: No. 21" by Walt Whitman
Commissioned by The College of New Jersey Chorale; John Leonard, Artistic Director, "live" performance by The College of New Jersey Chorale, April, 2016
Scored for SATB chorus and piano

To learn more about this work, visit
www.andreaclearfield.com/works/choral…of-the-body/

To purchase the score, visit
http://seeadot.com/staff-view/andrea-clearfield/

———

I am the poet of the Body and I am the poet of the Soul,
The pleasures of heaven are with me and the pains of hell are with me,
The first I graft and increase upon myself, the latter I translate into new tongue.

I am the poet of the woman the same as the man,
And I say it is as great to be a woman as to be a man,
And I say there is nothing greater than the mother of men.

I chant the chant of dilation or pride,
We have had ducking and deprecating about enough,
I show that size is only development.

I am he that walks with the tender and growing night,
I call to the earth and sea half-held by the night.

Press close bare-bosom’d night-press close magnetic nourishing night!
Night of south winds-night of the large few stars!
Still nodding night-mad naked summer night.

Smile O voluptuous cool-breath’d earth!
Earth of the slumbering and liquid trees!
Earth of departed sunset-earth of the mountains misty-topt!
Earth of the vitreous pour of the full moon just tinged with blue!
Earth of shine and dark mottling the tide of the river!
Earth of the limpid gray of clouds brighter and clearer for my sake!
Far-swooping elbow’d earth-rich apple-blossom’d earth!
Smile, for your lover comes.

Prodigal, you have given me love-therefore I to you give love!
O unspeakable passionate love.

———

Image credit: painting by Louise Clearfield www.stationgallery.net/LouiseClearfield.htm

Poet.4.16.16

Poet of the Body and the Soul

Into the Blue with poetry by Susan Windle. Commissioned by the Rainbow Chorale in celebration of their 10 year Anniversary. This recording is of the Harmonium Choral Society directed by Anne Matlack.

Image is an excerpt of a painting by the composer's mother, Louise Clearfield. See more of her works here: http://www.stationgallery.net/LouiseClearfield.htm

Andrea Clearfield

Into the Blue

Excerpted from Tse Go La (At the Threshold of This Life)
Written by Andrea Clearfield
Performed by the Michigan State University Musique 21 New Music Ensemble (2015)
Co-commissioned by the Mendelssohn Club and Pennsylvania Girlchoir

This is a 5 min. excerpt of a 32 min. work. For more information about this work, visit http://www.andreaclearfield.com/works/choral/tse-go-la/

To listen to the entire multi-movement work, go to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J3EhYH17obY

Image credit: painting by Louise Clearfield http://www.stationgallery.net/LouiseClearfield.htm

Andrea Clearfield's Album

Tse Go La (Excerpt)

Rock Music by Alex Shapiro (ASCAP)
Performed by Patrick Marsh Middle School 7th Grade Band, conducted by Chris Gleason
Published by Activist Music LLC (ASCAP). All rights reserved.

"In this geo-electroacoustic piece for symphonic wind band, the music slowly crawls, melts, and scrapes over a sonic landscape in random, irregular ways: much as the glaciers carved the world we know. As the climate changes, so does our planet, and ROCK MUSIC was composed to be an ominous reminder."

Learn more at http://www.alexshapiro.org/Rock_Musicpg1.html

Rock Music

Rock Music - Shapiro

Quintan Ana Wikswo's performance script for NONAGON FOR THE DEAD WHO ARE RISING (from OUT HERE DEATH IS NO BIG DEAL) is an improvised prose poem in nine parts - with music by Arthur Kell. A spiral of abstract conceptual compositions surrounding colonialism, genocide, and resistance, the Black Panthers, the Black Snake Dakota Access Pipeline, Nazi anthropologists, femicide, protection, connection, intersection, anger, Nambe Pueblo peyote, the dead who are living, the living who are dead, and the strings that weave us all together.
 
A nonagon is a nine-sided polygon. NONAGON FOR THE DEAD WHO ARE RISING is dedicated to all our ancestors, relations, and connections, our friends and enemies, our allies and adversaries who present us with opportunities to question and resist the loss of agency in our lives, psyches, minds, and bodies, and evolve and transform into beings of blessing and liberation. May we all find healing and inspiring connections for change even amidst the most challenging people and situations.

Supported by fellowships from Creative Capital, the Theo Westenberger Estate, and Some Serious Business. 

www.QuintanWikswo.com
www.BumbleMoth.com
www.OutHereDeathIsNoBigDeal.com

ABOUT THE ARTIST
https://vimeo.com/75043426

PERFORMANCE VIDEO INSTALLATION: 
FIELDWORK https://vimeo.com/89473941

REVIEW IN HYPERALLERGIC
http://hyperallergic.com/192680/in-the-desert-a-vulture-spirit-follows-a-trail-of-femicide/

FIELDWORK in GUERNICA
https://www.guernicamag.com/features/fieldwork/

Quintan Ana Wikswo / Nonagon for the Dead Who are Rising (c) 18 October 2016

Unremembered Wings performed by Calvin Wong, soprano saxophone and Mo Xu, piano at Riverside Recital Hall, Iowa City, Iowa, 2014. The work was inspired by the poem, "La poesía" by Pablo Neruda.

"...and something started in my soul, 
fever or unremembered wings, 
and I made my own way, 
deciphering 
that fire 
and I wrote the first faint line, 
faint, without substance, pure 
nonsense, 
pure wisdom 
of someone who knows nothing, 
and suddenly I saw 
the heavens 
unfastened 
and open..."

Unremembered Wings for Soprano Saxophone and Piano

Out of the Mist, Above the Real is Daniel’s beloved Irish Cantata, premiered at the National Concert Hall in Dublin in July 2002 and again for a US premiere in 2005.  It is performed by a large international festival choir, accompanied by the Irish Chamber Orchestra, with Joe McKenna playing Uilleann Pipe, conducted by Doreen Rao.

Who But I?

I am Wind upon the Sea,
I am Wave of the Ocean,
I am Murmur of the Billows,
I am Ray of Golden Sun.

I am Hawk above the Cliff,
I am Wild Boar in Valour,
I am Point of Lance in Battle,
I am Stage of Seven Tynes.

Who but I can throw the Light upon the Meeting of the Mountains,
Who but I will cry aloud the Ageless Phases of the Moon,
Who but I can know the place where Sun returns at Time of Rest?
Who but I?

I am Fairest of Flowers,
I am Song of the Blackbird,
I am Salmon in the Water,
I am Word of Magic Art.

	-- Words after Amerigin


“Who But I?” is set to an incantation by Amergin, presumed by legend to have been the first Druid priest/poet to arrive on Irish shores.; His origins lie in the ancient Irish mists of time. The words invoke the myriad forms through which consciousness and the all-pervading anima mundi, the soul of the world, are made manifest, and their embodiment by the speaker/singer through mystical transformative power known as “Shape-shifting.” The uillean pipes represent this primal cry of original genesis. The children represent the power of knowledge and experience, and man’s unity with nature. 
	
					-- Daniel Brewbaker

Out of the Mist, Irish Cantata

Who But I

Caroline Steiger, horn
Faith DeBow, piano
September 13, 2017
Texas State University

Texas State University

Andrea Clearfield "River Melos"

Composer of music for opera, orchestra, chorus, chamber ensemble, soloists and multimedia collaborations

Unremembered Wings for Soprano Saxophone and Piano

Andrea Clearfield

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