Clarinet for our Times
The most telling statements are often the simplest. Instead of symphonic moving vans, we get the highly manoeuvrable vehicle of an unaccompanied instrument, telling us that more is less.
No music emanating from our days of unrest is more eloquent than Anthony McGill’s brief and understated clarinet solo variant on “America, the Beautiful” that we hear on You Tube as part of his “TakeTwoKnees” series. As one of the most esteemed black figures in American symphonic music, he is a perfect exponent for music to mark a commemoration for George Floyd as well as to make a statement on behalf of social injustice.
Playing unaccompanied in the short video, McGill plays the patriotic song at a funereal pace unaccompanied. Arriving at the high note on the second syllable of “America,” he deliberately flattens the note, shifting the upbeat song into the minor mode of lament the rest of the way—taking an astute fork in the musical road of his own invention. And, as if to highlight that the struggle is far from over, he stops before the final note, leaving the listener tantalized. Then he drops to both knees prayerfully and silently, not on a concert-hall stage but in a living room. To call his private-public performance soulful would be an understatement. He also speaks of his deep-felt concerns sympathetically in adjoining explanations.
More is less.
His funereal epitaph for Floyd in music reflects concerns for social justice, much as mimed five years ago on the gridiron by the courageous shunned San Francisco QB Colin Kaepernick. But, by extension, it could be viewed as a timely memorial for all the fellow citizens who have died—from the virus alone, now numbering an eighth of a million in the US. His play is restrained and highly respectful, with the exquisite phrasing well known from his work on stage and in the pit.
McGill is the rarest of stars in the virtually all-white world of symphonic music. He is principal clarinet in the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, previously in a similar post with the NY Philharmonic, and one of the youngest principals ever in these ensembles. His breath control, refined pitch and sheer musical savvy have been widely heard, most notably on our coast playing pieces like the Mozart Clarinet Quintet—unforgettable!—with the Music@Menlo summer chamber series on the San Francisco Peninsula.
Given the rocky road of tragedy, murder and pandemic that is America 2020, we can revel in artists like McGill working to smooth our hard-scrabble paths.
The music of the song was published 110 years ago by Samuel Ward, a Newark, NJ church organist, incorporating earlier texts by Katharine Lee Bates. Their version needless to say never veered off into the intriguing, expressive McGill minor key halfway through.
Anthony McGill, solo clarinet, in his variation on “America the Beautiful,” available on YouTube video via “TakeTwoKnees.”
