For its Fall Music Sunday, the choir will be presenting the works of Vermont composer Gwyneth Walker. First Parish Music Director Debra Morris-Bennett will conduct the choir for the featured work, The Great Trees. Three of the movements are for choir and two are for soloist, which will feature our own Maya Bloom as the soprano soloist. The work is scored for piano and clarinet. Boston-based pianist Noriko Yasuda and clarinetist Hunter Bennett, will join the choir for this presentation. They will also perform Walker’s “Sonata for Clarinet and Piano” during the service.
Walker says she chose the clarinet for this work for its sonority and that it is crafted from wood – it is indeed a featured element in this work. The clarinet portrays a lone bird in flight, adds commentary to the solo voice, becomes the essence of the dance in the fourth song, and rises in range with the great trees in the finale.