Snowforms

Category : Schafer Scrolling Scores
Dec. 6, 2020 at 1:02 p.m. PST

"As the urban populations of the world grow, the forces and charms of nature are more distanced from increasing numbers or people. But I do not write such works out of nostalgia; they are a very real part of my life...


Snowforms began as a series of sketches of snowdrifts, seen out the window of my Monteagle Valley farmhouse. I took these sketches and traced a pentagram over them. The notes of the piece emerged wherever the lines of the sketch and the stave crossed. Of course I modified the drawings as necessary since the work is primarily a piece of music and only secondarily a set of sketches. I printed the work so that the shapes of the snow were white over a pale blue background" - R. Murray Schafer