The Shadow Calls (2022)
A setting of The Dog by Thomas LaVoy
Two Tenor Soloists and Male Voice Choir (TTBB)
Duration:
c.6-7′
First performance:
20 October 2022
Svanholm Singers, Sofia Söderberg, Allhelgonakyrkan, Lund, Sweden
UK Première:
18 March 2023
Svanholm Singers, Sofia Söderberg, St Machar’s Cathedral, Aberdeen, UK
Danish Première:
16 April 2023
Svanholm Singers, Sofia Söderberg, Esajas Kirke, Copenhagen, Denmark
Spanish Première:
24 May 2023
Svanholm Singers, Sofia Söderberg, Fundacion Juan March, Madrid, Spain
Score
Programme note
The Shadow Calls sets a bleak, but ultimately hopeful poem by American composer-poet Thomas LaVoy which was inspired by Spanish painter Francisco Goya’s The Dog, which the artist painted directly onto the walls of his house during a period of mental and physical distress. LaVoy’s poem vividly describes a drowning sequence (the eponymous dog in Goya’s painting is largely thought to be drowning) as the protagonist wrestles with whether to give themselves to the water (‘the shadow calls’) or to fight for survival. Ultimately, the coming of the morning heralds a defiant change of mood and the beginning of a struggle to reach light and hope. My work uses the inherent structure and characterisation of the poem for its own form and direction – two tenor soloists intone repeated incantations, urging the protagonist to submit to the water. Against this, the main choir provides the more dramatic, colourful, narrative material, often overlapping and immersing the solo voices in their music. The work ends with all the voices taking on the soloists’ chants in a free and euphoric swell on the final words of ‘and climb to sky.’
PAC
Recording
The Shadow Calls (2022) by Phillip Cooke, performed by the Svanholm Singers conducted by Sofia Söderberg at the Allhelgonakyrkan, Lund, Sweden on 20 October 2022
