Klarinet Archive - Posting 000419.txt from 1995/09

From: Rick Sowash <73563.3161@-----.COM>
Subj: Composer offers free Clarinet-Cello suite
Date: Tue, 19 Sep 1995 16:38:45 -0400

To: All Klarinet Subscribers
Fr: Rick Sowash, composer

Anybody out there interested in seeing a relatively new suite for clarinet and
cello?

I've just finished notating (in Finale) a piece I wrote in 1993 entitled, "Born
of the Same Wild Mother," a suite in six movements for B-flat clarinet and
cello. The piece is tonal and accessible, not very difficult, and it makes an
attempt to depict the Nature I know from having lived almost all of my life
close by the woods, fields and streams of rural Ohio.

The title derives from a lovely utterance by a minor writer whose works I
cherish:

"We are close of kin to all Earth's children,
born of the same wild mother,
fed at her breast like them,
and soon to fall asleep as they
in her strong arms."

from The Cabin Down the Glen by Odell Shepard
(unpublished manuscript)

The thought is somewhat dark, though very beautiful, I think, and the suite
aspires to the same adjectives ... it's mostly in d minor, tuneful but sad in a
November-ish sort of way.

I'm trying to reach a combination of knowledge, notated scores, mastered
software and acquired hardware that will allow me to e-mail scores to anyone who
can download them, but I'm not at that point yet.

Eventually I want to be able to post my scores, possibly on my own Web Page, for
anyone to download and look at. But it's all new to me and I've only just
mastered (more or less) Finale, let alone the complexities of file transfers,
etc.

But meanwhile the clarinet-cello suite sits here on the shelf in my home and
what is the good of that? Music means nothing until it is heard.

So, if any clarinetist-cellist couples read this and want a copy, all you have
to do is e-mail your physical address back to me and I'll print out the suite
and send it to you via the postal service.

Perhaps it is a little unusual to offer music for free ... so perhaps I should
explain that I earn a fairly decent living as a humorist and do not depend upon
my composing for income. I compose the best music I can fashion, writing with
various friends in mine, and then offer it up to anybody that's interested,
thereby making new friends, etc. This new suite I wrote for Russell Harlow and
Terry King, both friend of mine based in Salt Lake City.

Actually offering music for free to anyone who's interested is an idea I got
from reading a biography of Charles Ives -- he printed up his "Concord Sonata"
and "114 Songs" and sent them all over the place to anyone and everyone he
thought might be interested. And the result is that, today, we know his music.

But don't be frightened off by my mentioning his name -- he's a great composer,
in my opinion, but my music does not in the least resemble his, except maybe the
more conservative things he wrote, and even then .... well, you'll see.

In the near future, I plan to offer other pieces in the same manner, including
my "Chant, Credo & Alleluia" for coloratura soprano and Bb clarinet and a new
piece I am just completing ... entitled "Three Myths" for coloratura soprano,
clarinet in A, and piano. More about those pieces later.

The ball is in your court.

Rick Sowash
Cincinnati, OH