Crescent Meadow (2014)

SATB choir. 4 ½ mins.

Recording courtesy of SACRA/PROFANA.

A choral setting of text adapted from an essay by John Muir about Crescent Meadow in Sequoia National Park.

Perusal Score

View perusal score.

Performance score available for purchase. Please direct inquiries to Nell Shaw Cohen at nell@nellshawcohen.com.

NEW! Seeking repertoire for your choir or vocal ensemble? Check out my programming guide for choral directors.

TEXT

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.

Performance History
  • SACRA/PROFANA, Juan Carlos Acosta, conductor, St. Mark’s United Methodist Church, San Diego, CA, 4/20/24.
  • SACRA/PROFANA, Juan Carlos Acosta, conductor, Fallbrook Mission Theater, Fallbrook, CA, 3/27/22.
  • New Mexico Highlands University Concert Choir, André García-Nuthmann, conductor, New Mexico Highlands University, Ilfeld Auditorium, Las Vegas, NM, 4/23/17.

Explore John Muir’s Yosemite (2014)

Multimedia installation for web browser & iPad app with photography, video, and digitally synthesized score.

This installation illustrates the writings of naturalist and conservationist John Muir through interactive photography and music, offering an engaging new interpretation of Muir’s vision of nature. Explore ten sites in Yosemite and Sequoia National Parks with Muir as your guide. View it for free: muirsyosemite.com Continue reading “Explore John Muir’s Yosemite (2014)”

Point Reyes from Chimney Rock (2014)

Orchestra (piccolo, flute, 2 oboes, clarinet in Bb, bass clarinet, 2 bassoons, 4 horns, 2 trumpets, 3 trombones, timpani, 3 percussion, harp, strings). 7 mins.

Commissioned by the New York University Symphony. An orchestral tone poem inspired by the coastal landscape of the San Francisco Bay Area where I was born and raised, this piece takes its title from a woodblock print by contemporary artist Tom Killion. Continue reading “Point Reyes from Chimney Rock (2014)”

Horizon (2013)

Cello. 7 1/2 mins.

Live performance by Matthew Smith, cello of Juventas New Music Ensemble:

Short film featuring Callie Lyons, dancer, and Fjóla Evans, cello:

Perusal Score

View perusal score.

Performance score available for purchase. Please direct inquiries to Nell Shaw Cohen at nell@nellshawcohen.com.

Program Note

Horizon was composed in 2013 for the occasion of Parrish Art Museum’s one-year anniversary in its new location in Water Mill, NY.  This work celebrates and reflects the aesthetic quality of the museum’s building and the surrounding landscape of the East End of Long Island, , using negative space in music to reflect the vastness of a flat horizon line.

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Performance History
  • Parrish Art Museum, Water Mill NY. Karlos Rodriguez, cello: 11/09/13. Richard Vaudrey, cello: 11/10/13.
  • Recorded on-site in public parks by Fjola Evans for short dance film. New York NY, February 2014.
  • Louise King, cello. Cello Dreaming Australian tour: The Cooroora Institute, Cooroy (9/09/16), Horizon Festival at University Sunshine Coast Art Gallery in Sippy Downs (9/10/16), and Lift Gallery in Maleny (9/11/16).
  • The Clark Art Institute, Juventas New Music Ensemble, Matthew Smith, cello, Williamstown, MA, 7/16/23.
  • ASTA National Conference, Mira Frisch, cello; Kentucky International Convention Center, Louisville, KY, 3/21/24.

The Faraway Nearby: Georgia O’Keeffe and The New Mexico Landscape (2010)

Video with flute, clarinet, piano, violin, cello.  10 mins.

(The music in this work is also the first movement of Into nowhere).


Video and music inspired by the paintings of Georgia O’Keeffe. Filmed on location in New Mexico, with original animations and motion graphics. Over 19,000 views on YouTube. Continue reading “The Faraway Nearby: Georgia O’Keeffe and The New Mexico Landscape (2010)”