The Cherry Snows

For SATB Choir

Listen:

Program Notes

I found this poem while searching through a public domain library of poetry during the early winter months of 2011. Needless to say, I immediately feel in love with this gentle,
yet emotional piece of literature.

With text as delicate as this, I felt the best style to use was acapella. Keeping the lines in an even, yet flowing form, simulating the even-like descent of snow, the four voices
build upon each other to make exquisite harmonies, exhibiting text painting, accompanied by smooth and flowing melodic lines.

Text

The Cherry‐Snows

The cherry-snows are falling now;
Down from the blossom-clouded sky
Of zephyr-troubled twig and bough,
In widely se􀆩ling whirls they fly.
The orchard earth, unclothed and brown,
Is wintry-hued with petals white:
Even as the snow they glimmer down:
Brief as the snow’s their stainless white.

-Clark Ashton Smith-
(1893-1961)