Highlands Sketches

2023 . . . flute, percussion, strings . . . 9 minutes

There are many Highlands in my life. I am part Scottish, though my great grandparents are from Glasgow, not the Highlands. I do enjoy its single-malt whiskeys, though, and I went to Howell High School, the “Highlanders.” And I now live in the Texas Hill Country.

Then there is Českomoravská vrchovina. I first visited what was then still Czechoslovakia in 1991. The Bohemian-Moravian Highlands are between the two main regions of what is now the Czech Republic. The ancient town of Tabor and the massif Blaník are two points of scenic and historical interest. Highlands Sketches sound paints climbing the mountain’s rugged slope, a thunderstorm of dissonant accents, and the quiet harmonic progression of an autumn dusk.

Score samples:

I. Massif (“Velký Blaník”)

II. Storm (“bouřka”)

III. Dusk (“soumrak”)

Comments

One response to “Highlands Sketches”

October 24, 2023

Emiko Takeuchi

Dear Dr. Thomas Clark,

How grateful I am to receive this Highlands Sketches! I have listened to these beautiful three sketches without pause many, many times over and over again. Your compositions are so beautiful, and when I am listening to your music, I feel as if I was sucked into the unlimited depth of the beauty of the world, and I forget the time into your music.

I am thinking of you and recalling the time at your office many years ago. Your book ‘Learning to Compose’ has been sitting in front of me ever since I left Texas State University.

Please take good care of yourself and enjoy the rest of the beautiful month of October!

Thank you so much again!

Sincerely yours, Emiko

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