"Dark Morning: Snow" by Anna Lee Hirschi

This string quartet by Hirschi is deep, introspective, and rich in color. This week has brought a lot of writing assignments, and so along with that comes a need for amazing instrumental pieces, and "Dark Morning: Snow" is just the ticket.




This piece really comes alive for me around minute 3 - I realize it might be a bit odd to be listening to music with snow in the title in June when the weather is absolutely perfect, but I have zero regrets! I had a chance to catch up with Anna Lee Hirschi to ask her a few questions: 

Musically Notable: What was the inspiration for this piece? It somehow sounds so lyrical, even though there are no words. 

Anna Lee Hirschi: Dark Morning: Snow is based on a poem by Jane Kenyon, from her posthumously-published collection, Otherwise. It explores the darkness and comfort of winter mornings, with Jane’s signature touch of melancholy. I love how simple and profound her writing is, each word both precise and expansive.

Here is the poem it was inspired by:

Dark Morning: Snow by Jane Kenyon

It falls on the vole, nosing somewhere

through weeds, and on the open

eye of the pond. It makes the mail

come late.

The nuthatch spirals head first

down the tree.

I’m sleepy and benign in the dark.

There’s nothing I want… 

MN: Wow, that is so simple and touching, I love it! How did you go about composing this - did you have a specific sound in mind? 

ALH: The opening phrase of the piece is meant to evoke quietly falling snow, as is the continuous staccato throughout the first half. The section with the glissandos in the second half was inspired by the description of the nuthatch. The ending is the first twelve measures in retrograde, a mirror image of the opening.

I wrote this piece as part of a composition seminar at Smith College this past semester. The Mivos Quartet came for a workshop in March, and then returned to perform our work in May. As a non-string player, I was interested in exploring what techniques, textures, and sounds were possible within a string quartet.

***You can contact Anna Lee Hirschi on Soundcloud to purchase the sheet music for "Dark Morning: Snow"***