Minnesota Varsity: Isadora White

Hometown: Minneapolis

Composition: Summer Stars

Tell us about the piece you have submitted to Minnesota Varsity.

When I chose to write a song based on Summer Stars by Carl Sandburg, the first thing that came to mind when read the poem was stars swirling around in the sky. I get this from the first line of the poem where he says "Bend low again, night of summer stars". I tried to capture in my music the swirling and bending of the starry night. You can hear this in the flowing melodies and arpeggios of my piece. I used the pizzicato because of the repeated strumming in the poem. For example, in line 5 when Sandburg says "So near, strumming strumming". I tried to make the tenor fit in with the instruments to give it more of a pensive and eternal feeling. The music changes in depth, sometimes everyone is playing, and sometimes, only a few instruments are playing. I hope you enjoy my piece.