The Little Match Girl is the setting of an original text based on the Danish folk story by Hans Christian Andersen (Den Lille Pige med Svovlstikkerne 1845).

The piece is in a loose ternary form. The A section is a dark, dramatic, folk-like dance in a minor mode and 7/8 time. The B section uses increasingly grating polytonality: a semi-chorus sings traditional carols while the main choir repeats a harmonically “distant” fragment. These juxtaposed carols serve as aural depictions of the Match Girl’s heavenly visions, and also serve to remind performers and audience of the stark contrast between different economic classes of people’s experiences of the Christmas season.

The piece was composed in the winter of 2018, inspired by a conversation about the treatment of homeless people in Toronto, especially during the cold weather. It aims to challenge performers and listeners aurally, asking them to examine their views towards people who are less fortunate, for whom a small kindness might be the difference between life and death.