Are they shadows.... – Carol Barnett
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Composer: Carol Barnett
Text by: Samuel Daniel (c. 1563-1619)
Instrumentation: SSAATTBB a cappella
Duration: Approx. 2 minutes
Date Written: 1994
Composer’s note: The settings of these Elizabethan-era poems are all sound pictures that use an extended tonality to illustrate a few of the works of Shakespeare’s contemporaries. The harmonies are triadic, but the triads have added notes and travel far afield through each phrase before ending on euphonious cadences.
Through the use of alternating duplets and triplets, “There is a Lady” suggests the unsettled, can’t-focus feeling of being rapturous love.
“My Love in Her Attire” is a rowdy back-of-the-bus-on-the-way-home-from-the-concert song that nonetheless needs finesse in getting the abrupt dynamic changes just right.
The unhurried pace of “Care-Charming Sleep” evokes the serene otherworldliness of deep slumber.
“Orpheus” is a siciliano in gentle but steady tempo. Voices singing “Orpheus…” are calling to him from the other side of the rive Styx.
“Are They Shadows…”, based on double-diminished scales, should be as light and fleeting as possible. These scales are built with alternating whole and half steps, and there are two of them, depending on whether they start with a whole or half step. If you can sing these scales, you can sing the piece.
An Elizabethan Garland was written for the Dale Warland Singers in 1994, and premiered by them in February 1995 at the University of St. Thomas Chapel in St. Paul, MN.
text
Are they shadows that we see?
And can shadows pleasure give?
Pleasures only shadow be,
Cast by bodies we conceive,
And are made the things we deem
In thosefigures which they seem.
But these pleasures vanish fast
Which by shadows are expressed.
Pleasures are not, if they last;
In their passing is their best.
Glory is most bright and gay
In aflash, and so away.
Feed apace then, greedy eyes,
On the wonder you behold
Take it sudden as itflies,
Though you take it not to hold
When your eyes have done their part,
Thought must length it in the heart.