Patrick David Clark has about 40 original musical compositions in his catalog, holding a doctorate of musical arts in that specific craft. Like many composers, his inspiration comes from musical creators who precede him.
Written in 2011 for the Alarm Will Sound ensemble to play during the annual International Composers Festival in Columbia, Clark’s “Ptolemy’s Carousel” showcases the influence other modernist composers’ natural and often otherworldly sounds had on his work. It made sense as artistic director and conductor of the Southside Philharmonic Orchestra that Clark joined his piece with their works for the group’s next concert, “Modernism: Rhyming Spaces,” scheduled at 7 p.m. May 18 at Central United Church of Christ in Jefferson City.
“Something called shape in music is passed from composer to composer. Sometimes it is a melodic shape or a formal shape. We think of rhyme as things that belong together or sound together,” he said. “I felt my piece fits into this concert in a complementary way.”
The upcoming concert is of personal interest to Clark, who closely studied 20th century composers of the modern era. It was a time where music made drastic changes, with its composers and circles of artists believing a utopia was ahead and their music could deeply influence the 21st century, when contemporary music is at its prime.
“There were a lot of crazy ideas about the future and this music experiences some of that,” he said, noting tonal harmonies replaced new kinds of note relationships in many of the modernist pieces. “On its surface sound dissonance reflects natural phenomenon. Listen, now that it is spring, to the frogs, crickets, birds and coyotes. They don’t sound like (Pyotr) Tchaikovsky; they sound more like (Toru) Takemistu, (Anton) Webern and (Claude) Debussy. That is one of the things listeners will recognize is this music is natural. We have come to believe the melody in Beethoven, Bach and Tchaikovsky are the natural melodies, but in fact they are less like nature than modernist music.”
Clark also wanted to present these composers’ works to people not as familiar with it.
“Everybody knows (Tchaikovsky’s) ‘The Nutcracker,’ but how many people know the music of Webern? Very few,” Clark said. “I am continually surprised to find out what you studied is less known than you thought it was. People who play music all the time … many may not know the name Webern, and he was a very important, pivotal composer of the 20th century. It is a personal concert in many respects, but I believe it is music that needs to be heard and preserved.”
One of the places modernist music survives is in underscoring film soundtracks. Rarely presented as concert works, Clark believes some tunes will be recognizable to the upcoming concert’s audience. In fact, he bookended the six-piece concert with two of those more familiar selections: Debussy’s “Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun” and Aaron Copland’s “Appalachian Spring.”
“(‘Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun’) is in the top 100 list of favorites in classical music along with Beethoven’s ‘Moonlight Sonata.’ They may not recognize the title, but they will recognize the music. … We are closing with ‘Appalachian Spring,’ which includes ‘Simple Gifts,’ a tune that everyone will recognize as a Shaker hymn,” he said. “These two pieces help the audience to be more receptive to the middle songs … that are more unknown.”
Those compositions include Webern’s piece, “Five Pieces for Orchestra, Op. 10,” Igor Stravinsky’s “Dumbarton Oaks,” Takemitsu’s “Tree Line” and Clark’s “Ptolemy’s Carousel.” As Clark is excited for audiences to hear all the pieces, he is most excited about “Tree Line,” which, as he stated, “is much like Japanese visual art.”
“It is if it were a glimpse of a different planet and experiencing the weather right in the middle of it. It is difficult because it uses so few of the conventions that we associate with music, making it almost entirely color and sound,” he said.
Clark’s own featured composition, “Ptolemy’s Carousel,” sees “otherworldly” comes even more literally close to its inspiration. Claudius Ptolemy, a first century Greco-Roman mathematician and astronomer, believed Earth was the center of the solar system, creating a complicated map using math to explain the sun and other planets rotated around Earth.
“In a figurative sense, musical rhythmic math shows the movements of bodies around each other. It is something of a dance, but it is a cool, more objective dance,” Clark explained.
Having only about six weeks of rehearsals, the Southside Philharmonic Orchestra has embraced learning these new and often challenging pieces. Clark said many songs are without meter, played in free time, and have tremendous rhythmic obstacles to overcome. He is proud of his chamber orchestra musicians, about 30 local and visiting business professionals, teachers, music college students and high schoolers.
“I have two Helias High School students on percussion, one cellist from JCHS and a bass player who recently graduated from JCHS. … They are amazing to see from the beginning to the ending rehearsal; there is definitely a change in them,” Clark said. “I apologized at the last rehearsal for how difficult this music was and thanked them all for attending … and several people said to me how much they appreciated doing the music and a challenge is what they really wanted.”
With plans to present an October concert with early baroque music and provide orchestral accompaniment again to Dancer’s Alley’s three “The Nutcracker” performances in December, the Southside Philharmonic Orchestra will present its seventh program since December 2016. Clark said he encourages the community to expand their palates at “Modernism: Rhyming Spaces.”
“Music can be likened to food. If you never eat something you’ve never tried before, how much of a chance do you have of liking it? Zero,” he said. “People can find out their tastes can move in a certain direction if they just try it.”
To encourage that sentiment, entrance is by donation to this concert of the Southside Philharmonic Orchestra, which is funded by grants through organizations such as the Cultural Arts Commission, business sponsorships such as Capital Region Medical Center and the Old Munichburg Association, and community contributions.
For more information, visit southsidephilharmonic.org/concerts.