The Universe works in strange ways. Recorded almost three years ago, none of us could have known that when this disc was released the world would have lived through a life-altering pandemic or a tumultuous upheaval in the cultural awareness that now surrounds us. And the work that opens this disc the words of Quaker George Fox ends with the words “So be faithful and live in that which doth not think the time long” provides an haunting premonition regarding the time in which we live. Quaker George Fox in “To Hold the Light’ is strangely prophetic about these days and perhaps contains a future caution for us all.
The music chosen for this disc is strangely and poignantly relevant, I believe, for each of us. We all now understand “The Fruit of Silence,” a motet that reminds us to visit those beliefs which are most sacred in the work by Cortlandt Matthews, or now, a deeply personal Requiem by Peter Relph that in reflection, remembers the hundreds of thousands of lives lost in this pandemic. And then there is the LaVoy work “O Great Beyond.” While all great texts speak to the universality of the human condition and, if are truthful, are timeless. Particularly the George Fox text set by Jackson Hill and the Tagore text set by LaVoy give us messages to reinforce the humanness of each of us for hope. Two works on this disc poignantly remind us of the passing of life in the Relph Requiem and especially the final movement of “O Great Beyond.” May these words give comfort to all those who endured the deepest of Life’s losses during our shared Pandemic journey. For, so many loved ones, goodbyes were said in silence, and alone. It is our hope that all the music on this CD will show us a way for living as we move forward and also give loving comfort to those who have lost loved ones.
TRACK list
1. To Hold The Light (8:37) Jackson Hill (b. 1941)
O Great Beyond Thomas LaVoy (b. 1990)
2.In Your Eyes (4:10)
3. In A Strange Land (4:40)
4. In Silence (5:04)
5. Quoniam videbo caelos (8:19) Cortlandt Matthews (b. 1992)
6. The Fruit of Silence (4:12) Peteris Vasks (b. 1946)
7. Requiem- I. Requiem Aeternam (3:56) Peter Relph (b. 1992)
8. Requiem:- II. Kyrie Eleison (1:22)
9. Requiem- III. Dies Irae (5:07)
10. Requiem- IV. Sanctus (2:06)
11. Requiem- V. Agnus Dei (6:47)
12 Requiem- VI. Communion (1:29)
13 Requiem- VII. Pie Jesu
14 Requiem- VIII. In Paradisum (2:48)
Total Running Time: 63:31:62
Soloists
Tracks 2,3,4 Megan Page Gallagher
Track 9 Cortlandt Matthews
Tracks 13, 14 Emily Shusdock
Track 14 Lucy Hole