4 minute read
Westminster Williamson Voices (p
F eatured N ew r eleases • c hoir /V ocal
A Scattered Light In Winter (CD)
Westminster Williamson Voices
James Jordan
A year ago, Westminster Williamson Voices joined a consortium called “The Scattered Light Consortium” along with Jo-Michael Scheibe at USC (the USC Thornton Chamber Singers) and Jamie Glasgow (The Glasgow School of Art Choir). I was attracted to the concept not only because of the composers who are dear friends, but because the pieces were set to poems by one of America’s greatest poets, Dana Gioia. When the two works arrived from composer Sarah Rimkus and Thomas LaVoy, I had, as they say, “the wind knocked out of me.” While both poems could be interpreted using a broader life perspective, they spoke to me and the choir in ways that were immediately deep and profound. Both poems provide light and hope to all of us who are living through this change at Westminster into something unknown. And then, shortly after this recording was completed, the pandemic struck and we were in isolation from our music-making family. We were thankful that we were able to complete this recording.
All of the music on the CD reflects our hope for the future as we climb a crooked ladder leading to, hopefully, a brighter new time for our beloved college, and our lives beyond the pandemic. Our desire is to see a glimmer of light behind what seems a very closed door. This CD offers music for personal reflection, with the hope that these sounds can provide for each of us “scattered” new light.
Track Listing:
1. In the Bleak Midwinter (4:03) Steve Pilkington 2. Kit Smart’s Carol (2:43) Gerald Custer 3. Improvisation on Coventry Carol (7:39) Sam Scheibe, Christian Koller, Guillermo Passarin, Alex Tomlinson 4. Solitude (6:01) James Whitbourn 5. The Stars Now Rearrange Themselves (5:09) Thomas LaVoy 6. The Burning Ladder (4:52) Sarah Rimkus 7. Salvation to All That Will Is Nigh (7:32) Anthony Maglione 8. Brightest and Best (4:34) Sarah Rimkus 9. Coventry Carol (6:50) John Frederick Hudson 10. Magnificat (6:15) Peter Relph 11. Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silent (7:35) Sam Scheibe
CD-1118 Compact Disc . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $16 .95 X-111800 MP3 Download . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $12 .95
The Same Stream
James Jordan
The Universe works in strange ways. Recorded almost three years ago, none of us could have known that when this recording was released the world would have lived through a life-altering pandemic or a tumultuous upheaval in the cultural awareness that now surrounds us. The work that opens this recording—with the words of Quaker George Fox that end with, “So be faithful, and live in that which doth not think the time long”—provides a haunting premonition regarding the time in which we live; Quaker George Fox is strangely prophetic about these days and perhaps provides a future caution for us all.
The music chosen for this recording is strangely and poignantly relevant, I believe, for each of us. “The Fruit of Silence” by Peteris Vasks reminds us to visit those beliefs that are most sacred in the work by Cortlandt Matthews. A deeply personal Requiem by Peter Relph, in reflection, remembers the hundreds of thousands of lives lost in the pandemic. And then there is Thomas LaVoy’s “O Great Beyond.” All great texts are timeless and speak to the universality of the human condition. 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 other works on this recording poignantly remind us of the passing of life, with 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 Listing:
1. To Hold the Light (8:37) Jackson Hill (b. 1941)
O Great Beyond Thomas LaVoy (b. 1990) Megan Page Gallagher, soprano
1. I: In Your Eyes (4:10) 2. II: In a Strange Land (4:40) 3. III: In Silence (5:04)
4. Quoniam videbo caelos (8:19) Cortlandt Matthews (b. 1992) 5. The Fruit of Silence (4:12) Pēteris Vasks (b. 1946)
Requiem Peter Relph (b. 1992) Jerrick Cavagnaro, crotales
4. I: Requiem Aeternam (3:56) 5. II: Kyrie Eleison (1:22) 6. III: Dies Irae (5:07), Cortlandt Matthews, tenor 7. IV: Sanctus (2:06) 8. V: Agnus Dei (6:47) 9. VI: Communion (1:29) 10. VII: Pie Jesu (4:45), Emily Shusdock, soprano 11. VIII: In Paradisum (2:48) Lucy Hole, soprano Emily Shusdock, soprano
