Mixed choir
SKU:
FG.55011-567-5
Composed by Alex Freeman.
Fennica Gehrman
#55011-567-5. Published
by Fennica Gehrman
(FG.55011-567-5).
ISBN
9790550115675.
Alex
Freeman's (b. 1972)
Cathedral of Spring for
chamber choir (2019) to
poems of e.e. cummings
and Robert Frost was
commissioned and
premiered by Somnium
Ensemble. The composer
tells: For the
celebration of the 10th
anniversary of Somnium
Ensemble (Finland), I was
commissioned to write a
piece with spring as a
central theme. While
contemplating that and
perusing appropriate
poetry, I was inspired by
memories of the
night-time sky in early
spring--the warm air, the
teeming, buzzing energy
of life all around, and
an expansive dome of
stars overhead. I then
imagined that moment in
time as a kind of sacred
space; this is the point
where the cathedral
notion came to mind. The
frenetic and joyous
poetry of e.e. cummings,
from his Epithalamion,
gives an exclamatory
introduction to the set,
followed by his vision of
spring from the point of
view of giddy children in
his iconic poem, [in
Just-]. We then take a
moment to contemplate the
ephemerality of all this
beauty (spring giveth and
spring taketh away, i.e.
an offertorium of sorts);
Robert Frost's
Blue-Butterfly Day places
us in a moment where, by
chance, we find ourselves
enveloped by a delicately
fluttering swarm of
butterflies. Peaceful and
still, yet in constant
flux, we spend a some
time taking that
phenomenon in, while also
experiencing a twinge of
the realisation that this
is truly fleeting. The
final movement, returning
to a later stanza from
Epithalamion, cummings's
sparkling paean to May is
set as a kind of final
anthem..
Alex Cumming
