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About the Composer
Christine Donkin
Graphite Publishing
Autumn Colours in the Canal
An evocative, impressionistic work that paints the colors of nature in music.
SSAA, piano
“Autumn Colours in the Canal” is like a musical diorama of a fall day. The flowing piano in 12/8 time suggests waving tree branches soaked in color. Donkin treats color names as word-sounds themselves, intensifying the imagery. The harmonic language is mostly diatonic, making it relatively easy to learn. The four voice parts (SSAA) will challenge and delight your treble choir.
Composer’s Notes
This piece was composed for the Cantabile Choirs of Kingston (directed by Dr. Mark Sirett) in celebration of their 20th anniversary. I wanted the music to have some connection to Kingston, and in contemplating possibilities while walking in Ottawa one day, I looked over and realized that I was beside a very tangible connection: the Rideau Canal, which was constructed in the 19th century to provide a link between Ottawa and Kingston. Since the premiere of the work was scheduled for November, my thoughts immediately went to the vivid autumn colours that are reflected in the canal during that season. I created a list of “colour words” and categorized them according to their vowel sounds, consonant sounds, and syllabic patterns, and from this I constructed the text for most of the composition. I also included a brief quotation from Percy Bysshe Shelley’s poem, Hymn to Intellectual Beauty, because it seemed to capture the vibrancy and energy which seems only to occur in autumn.
– Christine Donkin
Text
There is a harmony in autumn,
and a luster in its sky,
which through the summer is not heard or seen,
as if it could not be,
as if it had not been!
– Percy Bysshe Shelley
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