Adam Maness’ New Composition, “The Delmar Wall”
Date Posted: October 6, 2016
Posted In: Ideas,
From St. Louis Public Radio: The 442’s pianist and composer Adam Maness is a lifelong St. Louisan and, with that, he has something on his mind: socioeconomic and racial divisions in the city of St. Louis. He recently composed a piece called “The Delmar Wall” to address those issues.
This week and next, his composition will be played as part of the Chamber Project St. Louis’ “Essence” performances, taking place at CRAVE Coffeehouse and the Vino Gallery.
“I was asked by the Chamber Project to write something that means something to me about St. Louis,” Maness told St. Louis on the Air contributor Steve Potter. “I don’t know how I couldn’t write about the social issues we are facing in our community. They are, by far, the most defining aspects of our community in the 21st century. Besides, perhaps, the Cardinals being so dominant … but is that as important? No. So, yeah, I had to write about this.”
The piece was written for clarinet, violin, viola and cello … but features an unusual performance setup. The cellist begins the performance alone, physically separated from the clarinet, viola and violin.
“The whole premise of the piece is to bring together people over ‘the wall,’” Maness said.
Dana Hotle, a clarinetist and co-artistic director of Chamber Project St. Louis, said this kind of work was a good fit for this round of performances, which are themed around the idea of “essence,” which is meant to evoke the idea of ‘home’ in composers.