Songs of the Seasons (2014)
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(individual movements available below)
Songs of the Seasons
SATB // 12:10
Premiere: Saturday, April 13, 2014
Commissioned by the Chamber Singers of Keene
Songs / Texts:
Summer
Title – Summer Sun
Poet – Robert Louis Stevenson
Length – 3:10
Date – 2014
Autumn
Title – Leaf Blankets
Poet – Irene B. Crofoot
Length – 2:30
Date – 2011
Winter
Title – Sleighing Song
Poet – John Shaw
Length – 3:00
Date – 2014
Spring
Title – A Prayer in Spring
Poet – Robert Frost
Length – 3:30
Date – 2012
Program Notes:
This choral work is written in a strophic form, meaning that the musical material is repeated with each new verse in the poem. The piece begins with a piano introduction, which then becomes a short interlude played between each verse, each interlude identical to the one before. This short piano passage is written as a canon between the two hands; the right hand plays a melody which is then repeated exactly, in the left hand, one measure later. The two melodies continue to overlap, always with a one-measure delay. Much of the piano accompaniment proceeds in this fashion, while the voices sing simple melodies, as a group rather than in canon, which also repeat from verse to verse. The strophic form is interrupted in the last verse to correspond with a change in the poem. The first three verses begin with commands: “give us pleasure” and “make us happy.” The last verse becomes declamatory rather than imperative and focuses on a greater, more worldly purpose. At this point, the music becomes less introspective. We hear major harmonies for the first time, celebrating and sanctifying God and love.
