ROGER MARSH (b. 1949)A Little Snow (1994)
Jane Manning · Oxford University Press eBooks · 2020
This chapter examines Roger Marsh’s A Little Snow. This fascinating, delicate little piece consistently displays Marsh’s deft touch and innate musicality, which is devoid of pretentiousness. Space-time notation allows plenty of rhythmic freedom, but the composer is meticulous in indicating the proportions of note lengths and rests, ensuring that a sense of pulse is retained. Sequences of inflected short notes end with long silences, and there are passages of normal non-notated speech, to be delivered in a quietly detached manner. Later, scattered groups of soft staccatos are contrasted with hypnotic repetitions of cantabile fragments. At the halfway point, lines become a little more active and complex. But even here, since there is so much repetition, familiar ‘cells’ will seal themselves in the physical memory, so that the basic pitch range can be recalled quite easily.