As If New-Created

Conductor Notes:

SSAA, flute, orchestra bells (or pitched percussion sounding like bells), cello, harp, and piano. Commissioned by Elektra.

Composer / Arranger Notes:

During a 2021 holiday at my daughter’s summer home in Cape Egmont, PEI, overlooking the Atlantic Ocean, I discovered a copy of Longfellow’s Evangeline on the coffee table.

Its opening lines, describing a moment of stillness in Grand-Pré (an historic Acadian settlement in Nova Scotia) before the tragedy of the Acadian deportation, inspired this work. Longfellow’s romanticized yet influential poem Evangeline: A Tale of Acadie (1847) shaped public memory of the 1755 Acadian Expulsion, becoming a lasting symbol of Acadian identity and resilience.

The poem’s imagery of peace, wonder, and renewal resonates deeply with the winter season yet speaks meaningfully year-round. Musically, the piece unfolds in a lyrical ABA form: meditative folk-like melodies and textures frame a lively dance-like middle section, woven with the Latin text, Pax super terram, pax in profundo (“Peace upon the earth, peace in the silence below”).

The opening and closing sections should be performed with a dreamlike, floating quality, creating an atmosphere of wonder and stillness. The contrasting middle section should convey a more rhythmic, dance-like character, full of movement and vitality. Appoggiaturas are to be sung or played with a sense of fleeting lightness. The conclusion should build to a strong, expansive ending.

Text:

Filled was the air with a dreamy and magical light; and the landscape
Lay as if new-created in all the freshness of childhood;

Peace seemed to reign upon earth, and the restless heart of the ocean
Was for a moment consoled. All sounds were in harmony blended.

Pax super terram, pax in profundo.
Peace upon the earth, peace in the silence below.

Text Source

Evangeline: A Tale of Acadie (1847) by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807 - 1882)