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Musical description   ... a very sonorous piece.... not technically difficult.... slow-moving with ethereal harmonies.  It requires soft and sensitive unison singing, good breath support, and careful shaping of the singer's tone.  There's a bit of slow, imitative singing at points.  Then, there's a brief section of aleatoric murmurings.  The music concludes with gentle polychords in the voices, converging into a final unison while the instruments create a shimmering conclusion.  Some choir members will play Handbells while singing.  Two singers will briefly play the Prayer Stones in one spot.  A choir member will strike the Kendrick Bell three times.  A percussionist (or a singer who plays keyboard) will play the Crotales with mallets.  There are two places where the Crotales will be "bowed" with a Contrabass bow. These words allude to the mood of the music; ethereal        celestial        gossamer        serene        diaphanous These musical techniques are utilized to create the musical fabric; bi-tonality        pointillism        aleatoricism        minimalism        polychordal harmony

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Home Purpose Biography MUSIC CATALOGUE Orders Publishers Musings Commissions Mechanical License Choral Links Contact Me Domestic Performances International Performances Video Performances   GLADDE MUSIC PUBLICATIONS - SOLE DISTRIBUTOR To purchase choral scores: 1. Submit this Order Form electronically 2. OR, E-mail the details of your order to orders@GladdeMusic.com 3. OR, print this PDF Order Form and send by snail-mail to: Gladde Music Publications, 1321 Pillsbury Lane, El Cajon, CA  92020 4. OR, call (619) 463-5316         Click the image above to enlarge Radio broadcast with Interview & Music (at 1'50") Herriman High School Chamber Singers Herriman, Utah Austin Thorpe, Director         To see a full-sized photo, click on the image below The composer  writes;     "I've always had a strong affinity for Astronomy.  My love for all things stars, planets, and moons became my creative generator for writing "A Clear Midnight".  A world-renowned flautist friend of mine, Brooks de Wetter-Smith, took this photograph on the same evening that I completed this composition.  Unbeknownst to me - he was viewing this moon in North Carolina while I was gazing up at the same moon in California. What a serendipitous "reunion" of our friendship from graduate days together at Eastman!" The photograph above is the Super Blood Moon, a total eclipse of the moon that appeared on the night of September 27, 2015.  It happens to be at its closest point to the earth in it's elliptical orbit.  In the Northern Hemisphere, it's called the Harvest Moon.  In the Southern Hemisphere, it's the first full moon of spring. It's also called a Blood Moon... the reddish color produced by sunlight bending around the earth during the eclipse which emphasizes the red portion of the color spectrum.  This astronomical phenomenon won't occur again until 2033! This photograph is used by permission from Brooks de Wetter-Smith Photography at - http://www.dewettersmith.com Copyright © Brooks de Wetter-Smith

Herriman High School Choral Department Herriman, Utah Austin Thorpe, Director   ~ Page 5 excluded ~

Herriman High School Chamber Singers Austin Thorpe, Director April 8, 2016 The Riverside Church New York City               Click on each image below to hear various sounds that are used in A Clear Midnight (Dated titles are from earlier compositions by the composer) Recantation (1975) by Brad Nelson (4-note motif with a "tonal" 12-tone row)   Kendrick Bell ("Sounds of Solace" website)   Handbells   Crotales In Flanders Fields (2002) by Brad Nelson (Bowed Crotales - 2 examples)   Prayer Stones What The Thunder Said (1976) by Brad Nelson (2 examples)