Winter Dances

“Winter Dances” is an evocation of the winter season. It begins with a sprightly tune that segues into a richly harmonic middle section that then returns to the up-tempo melodies that began the piece. The composition uses six-part harmony (SSA/TBB) forming a double chorus of female and male voices who often sing antiphonally.

The accompaniment is either orchestral or a reduction for piano of the orchestral scoring. The work was originally titled “Only the heart will hear.”

Winter Dances
Lyrics based on a poem, Northampton,
by Gordon E. Abshire from A Collection of Poetry

Soft morning dances
on the hills to the melody of snow.
Light follows each path as
Lady Winter weaves,
Where she will it,
A dove-shroud for the dark earth.

Our dance-master at noon: The wind
Shapes the flakes tight in time
With its gusty discipline;
Space becomes bright with a tune
Only the heart will hear.

Evening ice: Frozen-finger rain
Reaches for every branch and future bud.
Even the tallest trees bow
In patient homage. To their own honor
The crystal cloak grows heavier.

The slate roof, steep-weighted with snow:
Ice groans and shifts
Crumbles and splits, falling,
Calling its own name
Cascades to the waiting ground.

A crystal chorus chimes in the wind
As the once green limbs now silver,
Gently in the light do move....
Reprise of “Soft morning dances
on the hills to the melody of snow, etc.

1 - Conductor Score (Full Score)

1 - Flute 1
1 - Flute 2
1 - Oboe 1
1 - Oboe 2
1 - A Clarinet 1
1 - A Clarinet 2
1 - Bassoon 1
1 - Bassoon 2

1 - F Horn 1
1 - F Horn 2
1 - C Trumpet 1
1 - C Trumpet 2

1 - Harp

4 - Violin 1
4 - Violin 2
3 - Viola
2 - Violoncello
2 - Contrabass