Composer’s Note:

Wesley McNair’s “Glass Night” is an incantatory poem, a kind of magic spell invoking the spirits of winter to coat the Maine landscape in ice, transforming it into what Wes calls the “speech of light.” The headlights of cars driving along the “moon-coated snow hills” will catch “flash of mailbox and sign,” the “glass branches of tree after flying tree,” and “the long glass cobweb in my high beam that carries me deeper.” In this choral setting, sparkling and urgent, the soprano soloist is the shaman, with chorus gathered around her as the ritual is enacted. The solo part and the piano accompaniment are quite challenging, but the choral parts are within the capabilities of good amateur choirs.