Shadow

for voice (F3-A5; tessitura B3-D5) and violin

poem by Elizabeth Bradfield

13'30"​

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2025

Commissioned by Duo della Luna

Premiere September 30, 2025 by Duo della Luna: 

Susan Botti, voice and Airi Yoshioka, violin​​​​​​​​​​

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Shadow sets a poem by American poet Elizabeth Bradfield that alternates stanzas about encountering the great white shark with stanzas about a ghost encounter. The speaker’s experiences of each of these “shadows” - shark and ghost - are at first distinct: two separate but adjacent stories. They begin to connect as the speaker recounts her developing acceptance of and wonder at the unknowable experiences and worlds of both shadows: the deep sea, the spirit realm. The music follows this path, establishing then blurring each shadow’s sound world, and opening into moments of delicate mystery.

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