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Skylark Vocal Ensemble - Seven Words from the Cross (2018) [DSD & Hi-Res]

Skylark Vocal Ensemble - Seven Words from the Cross (2018) [DSD & Hi-Res]
  • Title: Seven Words from the Cross
  • Year Of Release: 2018
  • Label: Sono Luminus
  • Genre: Classical, Vocal
  • Quality: flac lossless / flac 24bits - 192.0kHz / DSD64 +Booklet
  • Total Time: 00:48:49
  • Total Size: 222 mb / 1.5 / 1.94 gb
  • WebSite:
Tracklist

01. Were You There?
02. When Jesus Wept
03. Amazing Grace
04. Wondrous Love (Arr. A. Parker & R. Shaw for Choir)
05. There Is a Land of Pure Delight
06. Geistliche Chormusik, Op. 12: No. 5, Ich wollt, dass ich daheime wär
07. Karitas abundat
08. Break It Gently to My Mother
09. David's Lamentation
10. 4 Motets pour un temps de pénitence, FP 97: No. 2, Vinea mea electa
11. In Deep Distress I Oft Have Cried
12. Þann heilaga kross
13. Death May Dissolve (Fantasia on a Hymn by William Billings)
14. Deep River (Arr. G. Hancock for Choir)
15. In manus tuas No. 1
16. Just As I Am

Skylark Vocal Ensemble - Seven Words from the Cross (2018) [DSD & Hi-Res]


Thematic programming is my passion. I truly believe in the power of the unaccompanied human voice to communicate at a visceral level. Yet, I do think it is a peculiar challenge to weave together a program that can keep someone riveted (or, let’s be honest, even actively listening!) for 60-odd minutes.

The context for this particular program is quite specific - the vision for Tenebrae’s Holy Week Festival is a week-long series of concerts and semi-liturgical events that offer music appropriate for the final week of Lent leading up to Easter. The setting, St. John’s Smith Square, is both a concert hall and a church, affording a unique opportunity to create a program that is appropriate for both settings, without the specific expectations of one or the other. When it became clear that we might be able to perform on the evening of Good Friday, I set about to design a program around the scriptural seven last words of Christ from the cross. A diverse set of scriptures expressing a range of quite human (not necessarily God-ly) emotions, I felt that a musical progression based on these ideas could speak to audiences of all faiths.

When we learned that we were likely to be the only international group performing at a festival featuring some of the UK’s top choirs, I felt strongly that we should present a program with a uniquely American character. Being a Boston- based ensemble representing America in the UK, prominently featuring the work of Bostonian William Billings seemed to be highly appropriate. Billings is broadly considered the first unique compositional voice in American choral music. His music, which some might characterize as simple and somewhat angular (especially relative to the music being composed in Europe at the time), has an honest rawness about it that I find quite compelling. We intersperse four of his settings throughout the album, providing somewhat of a stylistic thread, culminating in the debut recording of Finnish composer Jaakko Mäntyjärvi’s Death May Dissolve, a fantasy on a hymn by Billings that includes the original harmonization.

The heart of the album progresses through the seven scriptural passages (or ‘words’), with pieces chosen to illustrate the universal human emotions expressed by the biblical texts. Some of the seven ‘words’ have a single piece of music, others have several pieces of contrasting styles. Our program begins and ends with simple hymns - I think of them as congregational bookends to the scriptural story that unfolds.





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  •  wrote in 21:13
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gracias...