Shivelight
for Clarinet in A and Piano
Duration: 11”30’
Commissioned by Robert Plane and Benjamin Frith for the 2021 Corbridge Chamber Music Festival. On July 21st 2023, Shivelight was released on Resonus Classics as part of ‘Isotonic: Commissions for Clarinet’, a CD of commissions for clarinettist Robert Plane.
The word ‘shivelight’ was invented by the poet Gerard Manley Hopkins to describe the fast-changing shafts of light that pierce through a woodland canopy. Derived from the Old English word ‘shive’, meaning ‘slice’, shivelight somehow finds its way through even the darkest, smallest of gaps, illuminating the leaves and casting dancing shadows on the forest floor.