Faye-Ellen Silverman

In Shadow

Year: 1972

Duration (in minutes): 6 1/2'39;

Difficulty: High (professional)

Category: small chamber ensembles - 2 to 4 players, solo voice(s) with chamber ensemble, solo voice(s) with solo instruments

Instruments: any female voice, any high voice, any string, any voice, any woodwind, clarinet, guitar, soprano

Publisher: Subito Music Corporation

Description: “In Shadow” was created as a personal response to the death of a close friend from cancer. All three short movements are to texts of Emily Dickinson. The first, “Elysium”, for soprano and clarinet, expresses the painful period of waiting for a diagnosis. The second, “Out of the Morning”, for soprano, guitar, and clarinet, deals with the seeming impossibility of going on after learning of the terminal diagnosis of a friend. The clarinet and guitar play excerpts from the children’s song “Skip to My Lou” -- a commentary on the fact that children continue playing and other lives go happily on, a feat that seems amazing to one experiencing overwhelming grief. The third song, “In Shadow”, for soprano and guitar, takes the singer from anger to acceptance of the inalterable loss. The song accelerates and gets louder through each verse dealing with anger at nature for continuing. At the point of acceptance, the soprano returns to the original slow tempo and soft dynamic level, and the song ends even slower and softer. The guitar accompaniment changes from angry chords and ponticello to muffled sounds and harmonics.