To the Field of Stars: Vocal Score

ISBN-13: 9780193409811 / Angielski

Gabriel Jackson

Opis

for SATB, percussion, and cello A work on the subject of pilgrimages to Santiago de Compostela, To the Field of Stars features a variety of texts on the nature of travel and worship. Underpinned by evocative cello and percussion lines, Jackson's strong choral writing offers fragments of spoken lines and unexpected melodic twists, while a refrain recurs in a new musical guise after each movement. The piece reaches its climax in the sixth movement when quiet, freely repeated choral notes ring out against cello and crotales, creating a musical 'field of stars'. Mysterious and beautiful, this piece offers an immensely rewarding challenge for choirs. Percussion and cello parts are available on hire/rental.

Recenzje

Jackson writes that he "didn't want to write a literal account of the journey, a series of postcards from the pilgrimage route â for that has already been done and done very well." Instead he has composed a work about "journeying in the wider sense â the physical, emotional and psychological struggle to reach a long-sought-after and life-changing goal" . . . I've been enormously impressed by To the Field of Stars. I admire greatly the thought that has gone into the selection of the texts and the music itself is marvellous. This is an important, richly imagined work.

O autorze

One of Britain's foremost composers, after three years as a chorister at Canterbury Cathedral, Gabriel Jackson went on to study composition with Richard Blackford and John Lambert at the Royal College of Music. Particularly acclaimed for his choral works, his liturgical pieces are in the repertoires of most of Britain's cathedral and collegiate choirs and he is a frequent collaborator with the leading professional groups of the world. From 2010-2013 he was Associate Composer to the BBC Singers. In 2014 his hour-long The Passion of our Lord Jesus Christ, commissioned for the 750th anniversary of Merton College, Oxford, was premiered in its chapel. May 2015 saw the premiere at the Latvian National Opera of Spring Rounds for soprano, choir and orchestra, commissioned by the Riga-based youth choir Kamer for their 25th anniversary. He was recently commissioned by The Marian Consort to write Stabat Mater to mark their 10th anniversary.