MusicSpoke | Artist Owned Sheet Music™

About the Score

Wallace Stevens’ poem uses the image of a harsh yet beautiful winter scene to demonstrate an important concept: in order to look at something objectively and to witness true beauty, one must be able to look past themself. Focused on themself and on their perspective, one may find misery and grief in a snowy winter forest, too focused on the cold snow and the biting air to see the glittering lights and still beauty. The title “The Snow Man” does not refer to a man made of snow (a snowman) but to a man who has achieved the icy stoicism necessary to truly understand and observe the beautiful winter scene described. My great desire with this setting is to paint the winter scene with the piano and let the voices play the part of observer (and occasionally the sound of the wind).

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