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Change upon Change The expressive choices made sitions to the B section, the tempo
By Becky McGlade by the conductor and singers will changing every couple of measures
Text by add greatly to how the text aff ect throughout the next 12 measures.
Elizabeth Barrett Browning is communicated. Some of these Adding to the tempo changes are
SA, piano choices are marked in the music the descending pitches, often in
Oxford University Press and some are not. The piano voice sixths or thirds, which move more
Duration: 3.5 mins is foundational to the aff ective de- chromatically to paint the bitter-

tails of the story but is manageable sweet affect of the text. The chang-
by a less-experienced collaborative ing meter should not be a problem
artist, so long as they are expres- for singers, as this is partly helpful
sive and responsive. The changing for appropriate text stress. There
tempo, dynamic choices, and mo- may be some awkward text stress
ments of nuance make the sense of moments, when unstressed sylla-
Changing seasons and dying re- ensemble and awareness between bles get placed on ascending leaps
lationships are the primary themes the singers, collaborative artist, and or less important words get longer
of this composition by Becky Mc- conductor imperative. Change Upon rhythmic durations. Overall, how-
Glade, cellist and composer locat- Change is primarily in E minor, with ever, the text setting is solid.
ed in Cornwall, U.K. This folk-like the exception of brief passages of E While most of McGlade’s com-
piece is part of the Oxford Univer- major in the A section and G minor positions are sacred, this text was
sity Press Songbird series, which is in the B section. Potential diffi culty taken from the secular poetry of
new choral music written for upper lies in executing the new ascending Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806–
voices. Change upon Change tells a sto- whole steps and descending half 61). Browning was an English poet
ry of a failing relationship, invoking steps in the E Major passages. An- who campaigned for the abolition
changing tempi, vacillation between other transition to mind is m. 36, of slavery, influenced child labor

E minor and E Major, recitative-like when the left hand in the piano is laws, and was disinherited by her

B sections (much shorter than the A sounding octave F and the alto en- father for marrying the poet Robert

sections), and an active alto line. In- ters half a beat later on an F . Browning. Her writing infl uenced
tonation and tuning between voices The text feels like a recollec- Edgar Allan Poe and Emily Dick-
will be important to communicate tion, as if the narrator is recount- inson, and her story is a fascinating

affect throughout, but this is done ing memories, until m. 31 with the one. The poem may feel dated to
in comfortable ranges for both voic- text “Ah, sweet, be free to love and younger singers initially, but after
es. go!” This is where the music tran- analysis and reading through the

CHORAL JOURNAL October 2022 Volume 63 Number 3 75