Mixed choir
SKU:
FG.55011-455-5
Composed by Matthew
Whittall. Score. Fennica
Gehrman #55011-455-5.
Published by Fennica
Gehrman (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.
