SKU: CA.927600

ISBN 9790007296117. French. Text: Gautier, Theophile.

A prevailing melancholy mood is characteristic of Theophile Gautier's (1811-1872) poetry; a melancholy mood which inspired composers such as Hector Berlioz and Gabriel Faure to compose settings. Tristesse (Sadness) is taken from the 1838 collection La Comedie de la Mort (The Comedy of Death). With over 50 poems this is regarded as Gautier's major Romantic work. Although the narrator in the poem is conscious of the joy and zest for life of spring coming into bloom around him, he cannot share this: Helas! j'ai dans le coeur une tristesse affreuse. (Alas, in my heart I bear a terrible grief.). Faure's setting portrays this effect less as a dramatic sigh than a melancholic unworldliness with peaceful piano accompaniment in the minor key. This art song was originally composed not for chamber choir, but for solo voice and piano. Denis Rouger has carefully adapted it to suit the requirements and expressive possibilities offered by a larger ensemble, without losing any of the qualities of the original in the process. Each part in the choir has a melodic line drawn from the harmonic and rhythmic framework. In the process, the variety and refinement of the choral language combines with an enormous flexibility in form and expression, as French melodies or German art song demand from a soloist and pianist.The songs have been recorded by the figure humaine chamber choir on the CD ... Wo die Zitronen bluhn (Carus 83.514).

SKU: GI.G-9610

UPC: 785147961000. Latin. Text Source: Attr. Ambrose of Milan, 340–397. Text by Ambrose of Milan.

Composer's Notes When I met Kelsey Rose in Oxford in St. Stephen’s House chapel over the summer of 2017, we had both just attended a very moving candlelit concert by Westminster Williamson Voices, featuring my setting of “Tenebrae lumini.” I was delighted to be asked to write a piece for compline in Princeton University Chapel, celebrating the 150th anniversary of the Anglican/Episcopal chaplaincy at Princeton University. “Aurora” is the result of that meeting. Composing by commission often throws up some interesting challenges. The piece had to fit both as an accompanying piece to the plainchant of compline, whilst simultaneously being a celebratory anthem. I was instantly drawn back to the poetry and hymns of St. Ambrose of Milan, particularly “Aurora iam spargit polum.” Fragments of chant (both real and imagined) are used to create the powerful imagery of the descending golden light of dawn. The piece reaches its climax with the plea for the despair of night to “vanish,” which it then does, leaving the sopranos alone on a high G.