Something for the Dark | SFCM Orchestra | Sarah Kirkland Snider

Under the direction of Edwin Outwater, The SFCM Orchestra performs Sarah Kirkland Snider's "Something for the Dark" in a September 2021 performance.
Program Notes:
Something for the Dark (2015) When Sarah Kirkland Snider was commissioned by the Detroit Symphony Orchestra after winning their Elaine Lebenbom Award for Female Composers in 2014, she wanted to write a piece about hope, a central aspect of Detroit’s narrative. However, while composing, she began to read poetry by Detroit artist Philip Levine, whose work and life began to change Snider’s understanding of Detroit’s story and, thus, the shape of Something for the Dark.
Snider was always musical, with some of her earliest memories being of singing original wordless songs that she later began to write down. Despite this, being a composer was never on her radar; without the internet, she did not know there were female composers, living or dead. But as she became more exposed to new music in college, she realized the possibility and began taking lessons.
In the years that followed, she found herself writing in styles that pleased her teachers but not herself. While part of this was a need to find her own voice, it was also a dissatisfaction with writing in one singular style. Her musical taste, which ranges from Bach and Debussy all the way to PJ Harvey and Liz Phair, could not be contained or represented by one style, so she began hopping between styles with every new piece. Some of her works, like Penelope and Unremembered, mix pop and classical music together in ways unmatched by many of her peers. Meanwhile, other works, like tonight’s Something for the Dark, feature a lusher, more neo-romantic style of writing.
Something for the Dark opens with cool strings that quickly explode into a theme that Snider describes as, “Hope incarnate: a bold, noble, full-hearted little melody surrounded by sunlight and dignity and shiny things.” First heard in the brass, the theme soon moves to high, soaring violins, which along with the pulsing, bubbling orchestral texture, gives the music an electric, magical hopefulness built out of joy and wonder.
However, storm clouds begin to appear as the timpani and winds begin to darken the bright string harmonies. This causes the piece to collapse into a light ostinato in the celeste and harp. Soon, piercing woodwinds and swirling strings periodically interrupt this peaceful ostinato before taking over entirely. This builds until the first theme flashes brightly over this darker music, subduing it, but leaving behind a version of itself that feels more doubtful and insecure than before. When the interruptions from earlier begin to reappear, it does not take much for the theme to be overtaken and swept away.
In its stead, we hear a variation of the ostinato from earlier, now quietly ticking in the flute, celeste, and harp. Supported by cool string chords, the timid ostinato begins to wander; as if searching for a purpose after the earlier theme’s failure. Filled with many beautifully written, aching woodwind solos, this section slowly begins to build as it finds some confidence in itself. However, it is beaten back when trumpets explosively take over the ostinato, violently warping what was calm and turning it into a terrifying mockery of itself. This eventually cools as the ostinato and strings finally fade into the distance.
While endurance is often seen as heroic in nature, the reality Snider paints in this piece is much messier. Rather than the chosen one surviving the trials and saving the day, this endurance is more akin to the final pieces of a fallen wall that refuse to give in to the sea. It is battered and broken, but it still perseveres, existing against the weight of the world. For this reason, there is a bit of hope and victory in Something for the Dark’s melancholic ending-while worn down to an almost imperceptible point, the ostinato’s notes continue to exist in the string’s final chords. Despite everything, they are still there.
Terrence Martin, PSD, ‘21
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