Composer | Artist | Writer
A dramatic work in one act with libretto by Nell Shaw Cohen based on the writings and paintings of Charles E. Burchfield (1893-1967). Continue reading “The Coming of Spring (2014)”
Recording courtesy of SACRA/PROFANA.
A choral setting of text adapted from an essay by John Muir about Crescent Meadow in Sequoia National Park.
Performance score available for purchase. Please direct inquiries to Nell Shaw Cohen at nell@nellshawcohen.com.
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There lay the grassy, flowery lawn,
three fourths of a mile long,
smoothly outspread,
basking in mellow autumn light.
Then up spring the mighty walls of verdure
three hundred feet high,
the brown fluted pillars so thick and tall and strong
they seem fit to uphold the sky.
And as I gazed, every color seemed to deepen and glow
while every tree seemed religious
and conscious of the presence of God, of God.
A free man revels in a scene like this and time goes by unmeasured.
Adapted by Nell Shaw Cohen from “Our National Parks” (1901) by John Muir.
A setting of selections from Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman. (The second movement, “Think of the Soul,” has not been recorded.) Continue reading “I Dream’d in a Dream (2011)”
A song cycle setting of poems by Michelangelo, adapted by the composer from English translations. Continue reading “Revealed in Stone (2009)”
I. As the Sky Does in Water – listen to mp3
II. Laws for Creations – listen to mp3
Settings of poems by Rumi (As the Sky Does in Water) and Walt Whitman (Laws for Creations).
I. Senses – mp3
II. Recollection – mp3
III. Inward Action – mp3
IV. This Power of Memory – mp3
or… all in one mp3
A multi-movement setting of an excerpt from St. Augustine‘s “Confessions” about memory and sense. (English translation by Henry Chadwick.) Recipient of 2008 Elizabeth Brockman Composition Award at The Playhouse Project.