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Fraley Music · A Light exists in Spring (F. 177)

On the surface, “A Light exists in Spring” captures Emily Dickinson’s feelings during an ephemeral experience of Nature—that particular light that is unique to early Spring. But there is a wonderful depth in her writing, including insights about how Nature moves us to feel, the relationship between contentment and Nature, and our experience of the passing of the intangible.

My SATB choral setting of the poem uses a major second (a whole step) to represent the “Light”—such harmonies sound “bright” to our ears. The opening of the piece is filled with this color, and the music at “A Color stands abroad” has harmonies rich with major seconds. Interestingly, resolving this harmonic interval as a suspension produces a particular emotional response—I use this to evoke the line “But Human Nature feels” throughout the entire piece, as a major theme of the poem is our emotional response to the Light and how it colors everything we experience. So too, these suspensions color the music... until “it passes and we stay”.

Dickinson hints, though, that the experience stays with us even through its loss—it is felt as an absence, affecting us yet again. Being an optimist, however, I suggest that this loss—the mundane encroaching on the sacred—does not completely prevail: our memory of those mysteries persists. Thus, my setting ends with a persistent hint of the Light—our memory of its impact on us.

For more information about this piece, visit www.FraleyMusic.com/music/choral/a-light-exists-in-spring/

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