Written for my colleague Ian Davidson of the Texas State music faculty and Pleasant Street Players. Autumn Rain is inspired by Robert Frost’s poem “My November Guest,” an exquisite expression of loss and sadness.
In four movements:
I. “these dark days of autumn rain”
II. “my sorrow” (remembering Lidice)
III. “the bare, the withered tree”
IV. “the sodden pasture lane”
The second movement’s memorial to the atrocity of Lidice quotes the Czech national anthem Kde domov můj (“Where My Home Is”).
To request performance materials and permission, email BMI-affiliated composer Thomas Clark, tc24@txstate.edu
The Czech mountain village of Hukvaldy was the summer home of the great 20th-century Moravian composer Leoš Janáček. I visited there many years ago when studying Janáček’s music and composing a ballet, PTACI, which was premiered in Brno in 1993. Janáček loved nature walks and studied bird songs. HUKVALDY SKETCHES is a set of modern musical impressions of old Moravia, in the ancient heart of Eastern Europe.
Premiere performance February 6, 2018, at Texas State University Performing Arts Center:
I. Hrad – morning climb to the castle ruins
II. Ptáci – watching Leoš’s birds
III. Vody – forest streams and shadows
IV. Bystroušky – mouflons and other mountain wildlife
V. Podzim – autumn sunset
Ian Davidson (oboe), Vanguel Tangarov (clarinet), Ames Asbell (viola), Kari Klier (marimba)
To request performance materials and permission, email BMI-affiliated composer Thomas Clark, tc24@txstate.edu