At Night

"At Night" for Clarinet Choir (4 Clarinets in B-flat and 2 Bass Clarinets) was originally written for SATB choir a cappella. The poem At Night by Amy Lowell used for inspiration in both speaks of the wind singing through the trees and the excitement of the wild wind. The clarinets imitate this idea of the wind at the beginning and end of the piece through freely played sections. Much of the piece contains this feeling of joyful freedom, from a dance-like section to the feeling "wild, tumultuous joy" that grows and builds with excitement. Towards the end of the piece when the clarinets come together to explore the feeling of the text "And my mind, O Star! is filled with your white light," we feel the true wonder of a hot July night and the freedom to enjoy the onward sweeping wind. At Night Amy Lowell (1874-1925) The wind is singing through the trees to-night, A deep-voiced song of rushing cadences And crashing intervals. No summer breeze Is this, though hot July is at its height, Gone is her gentler music; with delight She listens to this booming like the seas, These elemental, loud necessities Which call to her to answer their swift might. Above the tossing trees shines down a star, Quietly bright; this wild, tumultuous joy Quickens nor dims its splendour. And my mind, O Star! Is filled with your white light, from far, So suffer me this one night to enjoy The freedom of the onward sweeping wind. -From A Dome of Many-Coloured Glass. 1912, Houghton Mifflin Company Poem is in the public domain.