The Cooling Shadow
At the 2024 Western ACDA Conference, several colleagues and I were fortunate to have lunch and listen to performing choirs with Charlene Archibeque. At one of the concert sessions, her setting of “The Cooling Shadow” was performed and prompted a deep dive into the writings of Anne Bradstreet. After spending several weeks with her works, several poems spoke to me, including The Cooling Shadow. My setting of Bradstreet’s poem is the first movement in a set of Contemplations. In this piece, the mixed meter signifies both the rushing river and wind surrounding the Elm and its shadow. The second section signifies the simultaneous pain and pleasure of solitude. The last passage signifies the good memories beside the Elm, and paints the depiction of the author’s desire to live in the sun. The piece is the first of a three-movement cycle, Contemplations.
Additional Information
Premiere Information:
The Cooling Shadow was premiered by Choral Arts Initiative as part of their PREMIERE|Project Festival on June 28th, 2024, with Ali Sandweiss Hodges conducting.
Text:
Under the cooling shadow of a stately Elm
Close sate I by a goodly Rivers side,
Where gliding streams the Rocks did overwhelm;
A lonely place, with pleasures dignifi’d.
I once that lov’d the shady woods so well,
Now thought the rivers did the trees excel,
And if the sun would ever shine, there would I dwell.
- Anne Bradstreet (1612-1672)