chamber music – Page 4 – Thomas Clark – composer / digital artist

Climbing Blaník

oboe, clarinet, viola, cello, marimba. Duration 7:10. 2018.

Final piece of the Czech chamber music trilogy for the Pleasant Street Players, Ian Davidson, Vanguel Tangarov, Ames Asbell, and their musical associates.

Climbing Blaník records musical impressions of an autumn walk up this legendary mountain. A famous Bach quote sets the forest scene of fluttering golden leaves above the rocky landscape. Blaník’s history goes back to 5^th-century BC Celtic ruins, but the structure at the summit now is a replica of a Hussite watchtower. A 15^th-century legend says that St. Wenceslas and an army of knights slumber inside the mountain and will awaken to defend the Czech people when they are attacked.

October 11, 2018

String Theory

2018 . . . solo soprano saxophone and sax quartet (2 alto, ten, bari) . . . Duration 7:30

String Theory – In Memoriam Larry Austin is based on the idea current in particle physics that subatomic particles of matter at the deepest fundamental level are all spinning strings of energy. Translated into music by analogy, small three-note segments of a diatonic scale (C Major) become ostinatos spun simultaneously at subtly or wildly different speeds. This is an example of an abstract musical idea like those at the core of much of the experimental music of pioneering composer Larry Austin (1930 – 2018), Clark’s 40-year colleague, collaborator and friend.

To request performance materials and permission, email BMI-affiliated composer Thomas Clark, tc24@txstate.edu.

October 10, 2018

Karlův Most (Charles Bridge)

2018 oboe, clarinet, viola, cello. Duration 7:30

Middle in a series of three works (following Hukvaldy Sketches and preceding Climbing Blaník) inspired by Czech culture and written for the Pleasant Street Players, Ian Davidson, Vanguel Tangarov, Ames Asbell, and their musical associates.

The stone Charles Bridge spans the great Vltava in Prague, connecting Old Town to the Lesser Quarter’s St. Vitus Cathedral and Presidential Palace. Built in the 14^th century, its 16 arches are guarded at each end by magnificent bridge towers typical of Prague‘s Gothic architecture. Some 30 statues watch over peddlers and a constant stream of local and tourist pedestrians. To be among them always evokes strong feelings of history and the joy of Bohemian life.

To request performance materials and permission, email BMI-affiliated composer Thomas Clark, tc24@txstate.edu

September 16, 2018

Chicago Sketches

2019 . . . Flute choir: piccolo, 3 flutes, alto flute, bass flute . . . Duration: 15:30

I. Fermi Lab – December 1942

II. Navy Pier – March 2014

III. Buckingham Fountain – August 1976

To request performance materials and permission, email the composer, tc24@txstate.edu.

September 16, 2018

Autumn Rain

2017. English horn. Duration: 6:40.

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

July 13, 2018

Hukvaldy Sketches

2016. oboe, clarinet, viola, marimba. Duration: 11 minutes

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

June 26, 2018

Lidice Remembered

elegy 2017 duration: 9:15

For history, photos, and insights into the Lidice atrocity, go to Lidice Lives.

Live performance February 6, 2018, at Texas State University Performing Arts Center:

Texas State cello students Boris Chalakov, Joshua Adams, Terri Boutte, Simon Reid, Anna Trevino, Gabriel Vazquez

October 17, 2017

SHORES

soprano, flute, alto sax, cello, guitar, marimba, piano

duration: 10 minutes Denton, Texas August 1983

sea breeze searching shore line brushing sunshine sparkled surfaces rusting reedy shore grass combing for secrets tossing seagulls skyward drying driftwood in salty sand.

seek the slowly settling sun search still the blackened waters discover sounds of crashing breakers touch smooth shapes of sleeping shores.