The Cold Song (2022)

For Orchestra
Duration: 7 minutes
2.picc.2.2.2.cbsn – 4.2.3.1 – timp.2perc – hp.pno – strings
Alternate instrumentation: 2.picc.2.2.2.cbsn – 4.2.3.1 – timp.3perc – pno – strings

First performed by the La Jolla Symphony, Michael Gerdes conducting, March 18, 2023

Note: This work is Movement II of An Elemental Music but can also be performed as a standalone composition.

Perusal Score (PDF)
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As I began working on this composition, I was inspired by the aria “What Power Art Thou”—also known as the “Cold Song”—from Henry Purcell’s King Arthur. In this scene from Purcell’s opera, the spirit of winter (the “Cold Genius”) is summoned to life. My composition freely transforms the shivering staccato motif and aspects of the harmonic progression from Purcell’s original, gradually building to an intense, chilling depiction of the Cold Genius. At the climax of my work, a quotation of Purcell’s original score momentarily appears, only to vanish again into the wintry landscape. Fittingly, I finished the piece on a late December night of subzero temperatures in central Illinois.

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