SKU: HL.1189332

UPC: 196288130857. 6.75x10.5x0.008 inches.

Sometimes profundity emerges through simplicity. Composer Matthew Emery specializes in making musical statements that carry all the harmonic weight of a divisi choir, while using only four voice parts. This meditative piece matches his musical artistry with the wisdom of polymath Rabindranath Tagore. Sing it through on sounds without words, then add the text, and you will be transported.

SKU: GI.G-10450

UPC: 785147045014. English. Text by David Bjorlin. Scripture: Isaiah 25:6–9, Isaiah 65:17–25, Matthew 28, Mark 16:1–13, Luke 24, John 20:1–18, Romans 6:3–11, Revelation 21:1–7.

This choral arrangement was written during the height of the COVID pandemic with virtual choirs in mind. The piece is wonderfully adaptable whether sung by a vocal quartet or a full choir, featuring unison lines that may be taken by a soloist and a violin part that could be played by any treble C instrument or even incorporated into the piano accompaniment.

This choral arrangement was written during the height of the COVID pandemic with virtual choirs in mind. The piece is wonderfully adaptable whether sung by a vocal quartet or a full choir, featuring unison lines that may be taken by a soloist and a violin part that could be played by any treble C instrument or even incorporated into the piano accompaniment.

SKU: FG.55011-355-5

Asked to contribute a carol to the already rich Finnish Christmas repertoire, music I've sung myself for many years, I was very aware of the things that mark the season for my adopted countrymen: peace, stillness, the cold landscape and home. When I came across Ester Ahokainen's gentle poem, so focused around these images, it seemed like providence. The resulting song is modest and warmly modal, departing only a little from Finnish tradition: a lingering dissonance here, a moment of quiet sentiment held slightly longer expected there. Like the words, the music opens outward in thanks at the end. Aattoilta was composed for the Helsinki Chamber Choir Christmas CD recording, and is dedicated to them.

SKU: FG.55011-455-5

ISBN 9790550114555.

This cycle of carols, to the poetry of Christina Rossetti, was assembled piecemeal over a number of years, gradually acquiring a larger dramatic and harmonic arch shape as new settings were added. I was particularly attracted to Rossetti's conflation of the dark, fallow winter landscape with that of the soul waiting for salvation. The cycle traces the long nights of watchfulness before Christmas, with the great event constantly deferred, only glimpsed periodically in different visions before the music turns inward again to contemplation. The opening carol embodies this spirit, with passages of diffuse, roving harmony interspersed with meditative, lyrical pedals, calling out the night watch and dreaming of a far-off summer of the spirit. Earth Grown Old is a kind of double carol, setting two complete poems, their lines at first presented separately as a still, expectant chorale and a jubilant dance, then progressively interwoven toward a fervent climax before once again receding into quiet. In the bleak mid-winter, which sets a highly compressed version of Rossetti's original poem, presents an enfeebled landscape frozen in time, in dire need of deliverance. A gentle melody weaves its way through static drones, broken by an angels' chorus announcing the joy to come. Love Came Down at Christmas ends the waiting, with its gently falling, overlapping lines building to a final revelation, the mystery of Christmas at last made real.