Chamber Music Clarinet
SKU: PR.114422950
Composed by Amanda
Harberg. Full score. 4
pages. Duration 4:15.
Theodore Presser Company
#114-42295. Published by
Theodore Presser Company
(PR.114422950).
ISBN
9781491134870. UPC:
680160685370.
HALL
OF GHOSTS was composed in
2020 during the
Covidlockdown period.
Evocative of imagined
spirits in an empty
concert hall, the music
pits dramatic silences,
amid searching and
plaintive phrases of the
clarinet, against a
lively middle section —
a dialogue between the
ticking of time and an
instrument striving to
make itself heard. The
work was inspired by
piccoloist Gudrun
Hinze’s video for
Harberg’s Prayer
Project, filmed in the
hauntingly empty
Gewandhaus Chamber Music
Hall.
Hall of Ghosts
was composed in April
2020 as a “thank you”
gift dedicated to the
wonderful community of
flutists who participated
in my Prayer Project –
a virtual flute orchestra
project that I produced
during the Covid-19
lockdown period. In July
2021, I arranged Hall of
Ghosts for clarinetist
Christopher Pell, who
premiered the new version
at the Interlochen Center
for the Arts.Hall of
Ghosts was inspired by
piccoloist Gudrun Hinze,
who recorded her part for
the Prayer Project in the
empty Gewandhaus Chamber
Music Hall. This hall
would normally be full of
musicians rehearsing and
performing, but now, due
to Covid-19, the hall lay
empty and filled only
with echoes and memories.
The image of Gudrun’s
solitary piccolo inspired
in me a musical
invocation, imploring the
spirits to let the music
return.In the first
section, the silence of
rests and pauses creates
an expressive background
for the searching and
plaintive phrases of the
solo piccolo. The lively
middle section is a
contrapuntal dialogue
between the ticking of
time and an instrument
striving to make itself
heard. These materials
trade off throughout the
piece. You can decide
through your
interpretation on who
wins. The music? Or the
ghosts?