A Puzzle of Shadows

A Puzzle of Shadows sets three poems by Robert Louis Stevenson to which the writer gave the collective title North- West Passage. I found the poems’ portrayal of a child’s fear of the night a poignant reminder of my own young children’s fears. Indeed, the association went further, as the decision to include a violin in addition to the piano and soprano was partly prompted by the fact that my son played the instrument.  However, the poems are very much set from an adult perspective in a highly expressionist manner.

The first poem, Good Night starts with the voice alone and only gradually introduces the other instruments. However, their accompanimental role is established with the second poem, Shadow March, and indeed the instrumental writing develops a momentum that leads it to overwhelm the voice by the end of the march, and establish a spectral scherzo before the final poem, In Port. This is set in a lullaby-like fashion and reunites the three performers.

The title, A Puzzle of Shadows is taken from a line in Robert Louis Stevenson’s novel The Beach at Falesá. It appeared appropriate not only because of the subject matter of the poems, but also because the music itself employs shadowing and foreshadowing techniques.

A Puzzle of Shadows was commissioned with funds from South-West Arts by Gemini, who gave the first performance with soprano Alison Wells at the Great Hall, Exeter University, 5 December 1997.

Philip Grange

1. Good Night

I When the bright lamp is carried in,
The sunless hours again begin;
O’er all without, in field and lane,
The haunted night returns again.

Now we behold the embers flee
About the firelit hearth; and see
Our faces painted as we pass,
Like pictures on the window-glass.

Must we to be [indeed]? Well then,
Let us arise and go [like men],
And face with [an] undaunted tread
The long black passage up to bed.

Farewell [O] brother, sister, [sire!]
[O] pleasant party round the fire!
The songs you sing, the tales you tell,
Till far to-morrow fare [ye] well.

2. Shadow March

All round the house is jet-black night:
      It stares through the window-pane;
It crawls in the corners, hiding from the light,
      And it moves with the moving flame.

Now my [little] heart goes a-beating like a drum,
      With the breath of the Bogieman in my hair,
And all round the candle the crooked shadows come
      And go marching along up the stair.

The shadows of the baluster[s], the shadows of the lamp,
     The shadows of that child that goes to bed –
All the wicked shadows coming, tramp, tramp, tramp,
     With the black night overhead.

3. In Port

At Last to the chamber where I lie
My footsteps patter nigh,
And come from out the cold and gloom
Into my warm and cheerful room.

There, safe arrived, we turn about
To keep the coming shadows out,
And close the [happy] door at last
On all the perils that we past.

Then, when mamma goes [by] to bed,
She will come in with tip-toe tread,
And see me lying warm and fast asleep
And in the land of Nod at last.

Robert Louis Stevenson    North-West Passage