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?
The First Gift - Soprano Solo Version
