Snowdrops

by Matthew Whittall

for mixed choir

Description

This piece is the result one of those clichéd flashes of inspiration
that rarely happen in real life, when I encountered Louise Glück’s poem
in connection with her being awarded the Nobel prize for literature in
2020. The scattering of lines spoke frankly and with vulnerability of a
tentative emergence from a state of depression: the electric newness of
long suppressed feeling, the still present memory of the abyss, and the
blend of fear and exhilaration at being whole in the world again. Her
words simply leapt off the page, and I knew exactly how I wanted to set
them to music.

The atmosphere is contained at first, bleak and halting, with tightly
packed unison canons like a mind looping stuck thoughts, inhibiting
progress, yet comforting in their sameness. Harmonic warmth appears only
in brief flashes before falling back into ambiguity. Very gradually the
mood opens outward and becomes surer of itself, acquiring warmth and
expression, perpetually speeding up toward a joyous and contradictory
tangle of feelings. A brief coda opens onto a vision of a new beginning.

Instrumentation

chx (SSAATTBB)

Category

Vocal and Choral Works

Language

En

Lyricist

Louise Glück

Premiere

Vancouver Chamber Choir, Kari Turunen, cond. May 12, 2023, Vancouver, Canada

Commisioned by / dedications

Commissioned by the Vancouver Chamber Choir

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