David Heinick, composer
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Autumn Shadows for baritone, clarinet, cello and piano (1980)

texts from ancient Chinese poetry in translation

i    Overlooking the Desert
ii    Afloat on the Lake
iii   Rain in the Aspens
iv   Riding at Daybreak
v    The Flute
vi    Autumn Leaves
vii   The Frost
viii   Home

17 minutes

    This cycle was originally composed for the faculty at Furman University's summer music program, directed at the time by my friend John Noel Roberts.  The texts all include autumn imagery, and are arranged in an order based on the time of day:  The first song takes place at sunset, the next two songs at night, the fourth (obviously) at dawn, the next three during the day, and the final one again at sunset.  The subtext, which becomes clearer in the last two songs, has to do with various ways of coping with impending death.  The musical language uses both traditional pentatonic scales and "chromatic pentatonics", in which the whole steps of traditional pentatonics are replaced by half steps (while retaining the minor third).