Sean Clarke - A Flower For My Daughter
The third composition on Ottawa-based composer Sean Clarke's debut full-length album A Flower For My Daughter is titled Three Nocturnes, after Monet. This telling dedication to the French impressionist painter, alongside the subtler (maybe even unintentional) nod in the direction of Debussy's landmark orchestral triptych Nocturnes sheds considerable light on Clarke's sonic lineage.
Like his forebear, Clarke's harmonic sense is guided by an interest in fine modulations of colour rather than adherence to a given system of pitch, whether tonal or otherwise. Although this tendency can indeed be traced back to innovations at the turn of the twentieth century, this painterly vision of blending sonorities has been a vital source since that time, providing the foundation for the distinctive languages of everyone from Feldman to Saariaho.
The title of Clarke's album is more than an echo of its opening work; it serves to establish a personal thematic frame around the beguiling yet intimate music it contains. All of the pieces were composed immediately before or in the three years following the birth of Clarke's daughter in the fall of 2020. The composer's thoughtful liner notes are candid and specific about the profound impact of parenthood, yet they also underline music's capacity to bypass reason and language.
His decision to quote David Lynch in these same notes, is arguably just as revealing as the Monet reference. Lynch's cinematic legacy lies in his deft intermingling of linear narratives and surreal non-sequiturs, injecting the mundane world with the absurd and grotesque. Clarke may not be quite so outlandish, but he too inhabits the delicate borderland between the programmatic and outright abstraction, with tangible landmarks protruding from bleary subconscious expanses. His unique amalgam brings elusive poignancy into contact with alluring ambiguity, and subtly integrates various techniques that traverse several schools of musical thought.
A Flower For My Daughter largely consists of solo piano pieces, with brief forays into other instrumentation. Pianist and fellow composer Roger Feria Jr. is the album's primary interpreter, appearing on all but two of the selections, and the record's overarching theme carries deep resonance for Feria as well. Not only did he become a parent around the same time, he also lost his mother—his last remaining parent—during the recording process, an event that only underlines the profundity of the parental bond. Feria dedicates these performances to his parents Chuan-Chih “Suki” Wu and Rogelio Gabatino Feria.
Montrealer Talia Fuchs is a gifted soprano vocalist and fearless multidisciplinary artist who joins Feria to perform the chamber opera Franey Trail, featuring a text written by the composer. The eerie elegance of Ballade is executed with warmth and restraint by celebrated guitarist Nathan Bredeson. Clarke himself, meanwhile, performs the ethereal flute piece, Mountain Hymnal, which was crafted to position the flautist in dialogue with resonance (achieved either naturally or with artificial reverberation) to conjure up the echoing valley of its titular topography.
Sean Clarke has received commissions from key artists such as the Babel Choir, violist Margaret Carey, Land’s End Ensemble and flautist Robert Aitken, New York City's Ensemble Mise-En, and stalwart Canadian chamber group the Gryphon Trio. His compositions have also been performed by the likes of Toronto Symphony Orchestra, Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra, National Youth Orchestra of Canada, Quatuor Bozzini, Cheryl Duvall, and Roger Admiral across Canada and abroad. His output has also been featured on two Centrediscs recordings, published by the Royal Conservatory of Music, and broadcast by Canadian National Broadcaster, the CBC.
Clarke holds a doctorate in composition from the University of Montréal after having studied flute and composition at the Royal Northern College of Music and the University of Calgary. Since 2017 he has been an adjunct professor at the University of Ottawa.
As a flautist, Sean has performed in contemporary music festivals in Montréal, Calgary, and Saskatoon, with the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra and the Red Deer Symphony, and in concert series including the Société de Musique Contemporaine de Québec’s Série Hommage and McGill University’s Schulich Professional Concert Series.
Pianist and composer Roger Feria Jr. delights in works that defy expectations and explore the extremes. From the quietly introspective to the absurd and fantastical, Feria strives to ignite musical imagination and curiosity in his listeners. A native of Taiwan, Feria began piano studies at the age of three and continued his training under the tutelage of Peter Thomas Turner and Marilyn Engle in Calgary. Spanning traditional repertoire to new music, and as both a soloist and collaborator, he has performed in Calgary’s Mountain View Music Festival, Montreal’s Société de Musique Contemporaine du Québec Hommage Series, Toronto’s Xenia Concerts, and Ottawa’s Friends of the National Arts Centre Orchestra concert series and Mackay United Church’s Chamber Music Series.
