Jonathan Newman

As the scent of spring rain… comes from a translation of the evocative first line of a love poem by Israeli poet Leah Goldberg. The poem itself was introduced to me by a good friend of mine a number of years ago, and I have a strong memory of how much the beauty of the original Hebrew and the imagery in her translation touched me. Because of that I deliberately did not work from the poem itself but only from my memory of it, which was so special to me that I didn’t want to disturb it with a re-reading which would create a new and different experience. As a result, the harmonic language, structure, and orchestration all aim to conjure the intense juxtaposition of sweetness and sadness which I most remember from the poem.

(to the 1-04 Edition)

• A contrabass clarinet part was added to the instrumentation. It is not reflected in the 1-04 edition of the score, but it only doubles existing music so hopefully it is straightforward.
• Alto Saxophone 1, m.46: E# and D#
• Oboe, m.66: B-flat whole note
• Flute 2, m.66: B-flat half note, E-flat(4) half note (+ fermata) with decrescendo