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About the Composer
Joshua Shank
Graphite Publishing
Services of Snow (cycle)
A meditative cycle on 4 Dickinson texts.
for soprano and piano
Composer’s Notes
Services of Snow is a song cycle which uses four poems by the American poet Emily Dickinson as its departure point. The first text floats quietly over a dreamy accompaniment which alternates between major and minor until the singer eventually spills out into her upper range at the mention of a “brighter garden.” In “Denial,” the music is jittery and lurching as the poetry talks about a human being’s will as a “numb significance.” The third movement lays Dickinson’s text over a piano ostinato reminiscent of a Ben Folds song and here she is angry off and defiant; an embattled martyr striking out at the thing which holds her back. After all this consternation comes the eponymous final movement. The text is delicate and the music responds by providing a gentle cloud of harmony for it to glide over like water slowly sliding over ice.
– Joshua Shank
Text
I. There is another sky
There is another sky,
Ever serene and fair,
And there is another sunshine,
Though it be darkness there;
Never mind faded forests, Austin,
Never mind silent fields –
Here is a little forest,
Whose leaf is ever green;
Here is a brighter garden,
Where not a frost has been;
In its unfading flowers
I hear the bright bee hum:
Prithee, my brother,
Into my garden come!
II. Denial
Denial — is the only fact
Perceived by the Denied —
Whose Will — a numb significance —
The Day the Heaven died —
And all the Earth strove common round —
Without Delight, or Beam —
What Comfort was it Wisdom — was —
The spoiler of Our Home?
III. Bind me
Bind me — I still can sing —
Banish — my mandolin
Strikes true within —
Slay — and my Soul shall rise
Chanting to Paradise —
Still thine.
IV. I cannot
I cannot be ashamed
Because I cannot see
The love you offer —
Magnitude
Reverses Modesty
And I cannot be proud
Because a Height so high
Involves Alpine
Requirements
And Services of Snow.
– Emliy Dickinson
$18.00 per licensed PDF
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