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May28

Chamber Music of Michael Clay

Saturday, May 28 @ 7:30PM — 10:00PM (CDT, UTC-05)Sat, May 28 @ 7:30PM — 10:00PM (CDT, UTC-05)

Steinway Hall, 5301 N. Central Expressway, Dallas, TX 75205

An evening of chamber music by Michael Clay featuring Kourtney Newton on Cello, Boriana Savova on Piano

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Compositions

Cello Suite No. 1: Heaven and Earth by Michael Clay. Edited by Kourtney Newton. 

The idea for this cello suite came from the love and inspiration that both Kourtney and I felt about the  Cello Suites of Benjamin Britten. Those remarkable works were born from the close friendship and collaboration between Britten and Pablo Casals, the famous cellist. Through Britten's inspired gifts of composition and Casals technical and performance mastery on the cello, the truly beautiful and unique Cello Suites were born.

Since I had access to a true virtuoso cellist through Kourtney, I thought we could do something similar. I sketched around and came up with the concept of an accompanied cello suite. But I wanted a suite where the accompaniment and the solo cello components were at odds with one another rather than a unified whole. I thought that the piano and harp could represent something other worldly, spiritual or metaphysical. The Cello, with its soloist temperament and earthy, melancholy voice could represent the physical, emotional...the mortal longings of human existence. The piano and harp could provide the spiritual backdrop in front of which the cello sings its joys, laments and passions. Eventually, the dual aspects come together to form a unified, if not altogether harmonious, whole. As the cello proceeds from painful birth, a wooded journey without direction, lonely starless isolation, floods and calamities, into the single minded march for purpose and meaning, heaven quietly vibrates in the background. Finally, we're brought  to a state where the unity of the spiritual and the earthly are evinced by a great light. A light that is reflected from the long horizon of the ocean into infinity. 

Capriccio by Michael Clay

Originally written for piano solo, this piece has been adapted to include cello. Inspired by French composers Debussy, Ravel. 

Double Piano by Michael Clay

For a long time I had listened and performed works by Steve Reich and Phillip Glass. I am fascinated by their remarkably  repetitious compositions which in reality provide deep, cascading levels of subtle variation. Their work is kaleidoscopic in that no two renderings are ever the same. Their work draws you in and calls attention to the finest details. This piece for two pianos invites the same attention to micro variations. It also exploits the micro tuning differences between two pianos which can never be truly in tune with one another. 

 

 

 

 

 Violin Sonata by Michael Clay

Originally written as an interlude piece for the album 25 Winters by the progressive rock band Hands, I decided the little tune would make a good violin sonata. Two subsequent movements were added. The three movements tell a little story; the first about boredom in school or a lesson becoming so tedious that the students has to burst out laughing; the second describes taking the long way home late at night with unfamiliar surroundings and only moonlight as a guide and last movement is a Tango and invites you to dance and  feel the emotional give and take of a stormy romantic interlude. 

 Five Songs from Field Songs Vol. I by Michael Clay

From a volume of songs all based on field recordings - improvisations and sketches recorded in real time with one take - these are five songs with lyrics about the search for transcendent meaning. The Remains is from an earlier song cycle on the poems of Mark Strand. The full volume I of Field Songs will be published this year. 

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