Sean Clarke: A Flower for My Daughter - Sean Clarke; Roger Feria Jr.; Talia Fuchs; Nathan Brederson

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Being a published poet and a dyed-in-the wool Imagiste, this disc registers with me in the same way as the poem A Prayer for My Daughter written by the great poet William Butler Yeats. However, the composer of A Flower For My Daughter, Sean Clarke, has more of the impressionist in him, leaning more towards Claude Monet than Yeats. Clarke says “I wrote this piece, slowly and late at night, in the year after my daughter was born. I tried to capture the feeling of holding my tiny sleeping child, into the early hours, letting her rest when she couldn’t sleep by herself, deep in my own thoughts, hopes, and fears.”

But here, Clarke’s love for his wife is gloriously expressed in the pain and joy of the experience. It is both graphically and sonically depicted in the melodic and harmonic conception of the musical tapestry into which it is woven, in textures that take us on a course of music that references sacred flute works:  Mountain Hymnal for solo flute and resonance performed by Clarke, Ballade featuring guitarist Nathan Bredeson, and the Three Nocturnes, after Monet which are imbued with impressionist zeal by pianist by Roger Feria Jr. 

Connecting these, A Flower For My Daughter intertwines a chamber opera sung by Talia Fuchs titled Franey Trail – a silken aria accompanied by Feria, wondrously strung out to adorn the birth of Clarke’s child. The fantastical world of David Lynch is also beautifully referenced.

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