Dedicated to Andrzej Ciepliński
In her three Yiddish-language poems titled תּפֿילות Tfiles (Prayers), Kadya Molodowsky reimagines what a Jewish prayer can be. Molodowsky recasts the traditional collective Jewish ritual search for the divine as a personal, individual quest that sets aside the beliefs of orthodoxy. Drawing inspiration from Molodowsky’s three poems, my work of the same name reimagines a clarinet concerto as a set of musical prayers. Following Molodowsky's poems, the first movement is a prayer for life and vitality against the storm of life’s trials, the second movement is a prayer that searches and yearns for knowledge of an absent, unknown God, and the final movement is a paean to nature, finding wonder in the earth and the sky.
Instrumentation: 2 Flutes, 2 Oboes, 2 Bassoons, 4 Horns in F, 2 Trumpets in C, 2 Tenor Trombones, Timpani, 1 Percussion (Triangle, Suspended Cymbal, Bass Drum, Tam Tam, Crotales, Glockenspiel, Vibraphone, Tubular Bells), Harp, Piano/Celesta, Solo Bb Clarinet, Strings
Acknowledgments
I would like to thank Andrzej Ciepliński, Kajetan Prochyra, Chris Rogerson, Stephen Cabell, Fjóla Evans, and Stefanie Halpern, for their help bringing this piece into being.
This work was commissioned by the POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews for performances by clarinetist Andrzej Ciepliński with the Polish Radio Symphony Orchestra in Warsaw and the Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra (NOSPR) in Katowice. The commission was co-funded by the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage from the Cultural Promotion Fund under the “Composers’ Commissions” program implemented by the National Institute of Music and Dance.
Dofinansowano ze środków Ministra Kultury i Dziedzictwa Narodowego pochodzących z Funduszu Promocji Kultury w ramach programu „Zamówienia kompozytorskie”, realizowanego przez Narodowy Instytut Muzyki i Tańca
