Instrumentation:
clarinet
cello
recorded rain sounds

Duration:
around 8 minutes

Premiere:
September 29, 2014 – Albuquerque, NM
@ Keller Hall, University of New Mexico,
Stephanie Opsal, clarinet
Mathew Arrellin, cello

Also performed:
December 21, 2019 – Santa Fe, NM
@ Paradiso,
Jerry Weimer, clarinet
Elizabeth Purvis, cello

If you’d like to purchase a pdf version of the score for Amane 雨音 The Sound of Rain, drop me a line. Cost: $10

Amane 雨音 The Sound of Rain is the first piece in the series collected in the album Daughter, we will name you.

Background

In 2014, when I was studying composition at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque, a friend asked if I could write a piece to celebrate his daughter, Amane, for her first birthday. I loved this idea – of writing a piece of music as a compliment for a specific person. I don’t call it a portrait. I had only seen photos of Amane and heard about her second-hand, and I also don’t believe that painting analogies hold up very well for music. I like to think of this piece more as a theme or an anthem, inspired by the person and written as a gift. It’s a suite of feelings she can take ownership of, if she wants to.

Because Amane 雨音 means “the sound of rain” in Japanese, I downloaded a variety of recorded rain sounds and made that my starting point. One afternoon, I put them on, lay down on the bed in my casita, and listened. Eventually, I began to imagine some music amid the gush of the rain and the peals of thunder. This grew into a meditative duet for clarinet and cello. The rain sounds felt too important at that point, so they make an appearance in the composition as well.

The instruments don’t attempt to mimic or represent the rain. Rather, they represent being in the rain, moving under and between the raindrops, getting soaked or staying dry. There’s a sense of care and conscientiousness – an awareness of where you’re standing and consideration of where to go next. You are carrying and protecting a great tenderness. And, of course, a connection to water.

Though of course Amane is free to identify with these ideas or not, I can say that they have at least shown up from my perspective of her and how she chooses to be a human. I’m grateful for the opportunity to have offered them to her.