Small Ensemble Bass Clarinet,Pipa - Level 5 - Digital Download SKU: A0.982536 Composed by William Grosvenor Neil. Contemporary. Score and parts. 41 pages. TheComposerStudio.Com, LLC #6701343. Published by TheComposerStudio.Com, LLC (A0.982536). Other Echoes Inhabit the Garden (2009) for clarinet, bass clarinet, pipa, and erhu (score and parts) I composed this piece imagining myself in a garden of images, sonorities, and aromas that all merge in an idyllic moment in time. I have taken a line from one of T.S.Eliot’s poems in the Four Quartets, for my title, Other Echoes Inhabit the Garden. The poem, Burnt Norton, concludes with the poignant truth that humankind cannot bear very much reality. I often wonder whether my work as a composer really has any significance or meaning beyond helping my listeners temporarily escape their personal realities. In recalling Eliot’s line, What might have been and what has been/ point to one end, which is always present I am reminded that a melody, a single line of lyric pitch flow evokes memory in the mind of the listener and that rhythm and accent often draws our attention to the present moving towards the future. So, with these inherent powersof music in mind, it was my goal to create a piece of vibrant and engaging music that relentlessly draws the listener into the present moment. Eliot also alludes to a timeless merging of present and past in this poem. His line, then a cloud passed and the pool was empty brought back memories of being a child watching clouds almost unnoticeably move across the sky. I was similarly inspired to conclude Other Echoes Inhabit the Garden with music that evokes an ecstatic stillness tempered with a longing for the past. WGN
