Prayer

Description

Prayer is a short work written in honor of Paul Fromm’s seventy-fifth birthday as part of a “bouquet of compositions” especially composed for the occasion and presented in a concert commemorating the event on January 22, 1982, by the Contemporary Chamber Players of the University of Chicago, Ralph Shapey, music director. My notes for that evening read: “I asked myself—how shall I celebrate this special day?xa0 The answer—compose a prayer.xa0 A wordless one… the horn is my voice.xa0 Bass clarinet, bassoon, and timpani form a low choir supporting, commenting, punctuating.xa0 From their midst the clarinet takes flight.xa0 In my mind, it assumes the role of the innocent village boy whose whistle, according to an old Jewish tale, opened the gates of heaven.”